Who wants to be a millionaire... with a 40-hour workday?

In the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" , contestants could use the "phone call wildcard" when faced with a difficult question. They would then call someone they trusted to try to continue moving toward the prize. Curiously, this same pattern is repeated every time an improvement in labor rights is proposed in Spain, such as the current reduction of the working week to 37.5 hours. Large companies, as competitive as they are profitable, activate their own wildcard and appeal to the "viability" of SMEs . They argue, in an apocalyptic tone, that the measure will be unsustainable for small businesses . But what they are really trying to do is divert attention and prevent any fair redistribution of the benefits concentrated at the top of the production chain.

But this time it doesn't work. Corporate profits have reached record levels, with sales margins improving for all business sizes, from micro to large. According to data from the Bank of Spain, large companies achieved a Gross Value Added (GVA) margin of 42% in 2023—a percentage that not only demonstrates profitability but also a concentration of wealth. But what is truly striking is that microenterprises have led the growth in sales margins, even surpassing small and medium-sized companies (11.2% large, 23.5% medium, and 24.1% small).

All companies are earning more. If some SMEs don't do so, it's not because of the 37.5-hour week or the minimum wage, but because of the model imposed by large companies. Instead of opposing it, they should better redistribute part of their excessive profits to suppliers, distributors, and the self-employed. The fact that ASEDAS, the employers' association of large distributors, is leading the pushback reveals a lot: its model, based on pushing its suppliers to exhaustion, doesn't fear reduced working hours, but rather losing that control. A fairer distribution of wealth must also reach everyone.

The increase in the minimum wage has already shown that the bad omens didn't come true: employment, consumption, and productivity grew. The same thing will happen with the reduction in working hours, not by faith, but because it's already happening. A UGT study on collective bargaining agreements shows that the 37.5-hour workweek is applied in all sectors in at least one province, regardless of company size. In Navarre, where SMEs dominate, it's the norm and leads in productivity, wages, and employment. In other words: it can be done.

Reducing working hours is not a whim, but a fair and viable measure. In a context of record corporate profits and unequal distribution of value, denying better working conditions is unacceptable. Sometimes, exploitation begins with those who aspire to sit at the employers' table: tensions are shifted from the top down, from large companies to small ones—which are also deprived of their share of the profits generated—and from these, finally, to workers. Breaking this chain is urgent. And the best way to start is by restoring time to its value, and to the working day to its dignity.

Who wants to be a millionaire? Let them be. But not at the expense of other people's time and lives.