How Would Andrew Yang’s Four-Day Work Week Affect Musicians?
Hey everybody, it's Sweet Deat, thanks so much for reading!
So Andrew Yang this week said something really interesting regarding the four-day work week or the three-day weekend, either way you wanna look at it, it got me thinking. What would that be like for a musician and how would that impact our economics? But before we go into it as my returning subscribers would know, we always highlight the artist that day, so let's do it.
Today's artist of the day is someone that is not a stranger in the jazz community, his name in his Kurt Rosenwinkel. He just recently released a trio record, but what I really wanna talk about is the video he just released on YouTube that is unbelievable. The song is called Under It All, and it is composed of what he calls the hardcore orchestra, which is, I guess a bunch of musicians, strings and brass and everything in between, that he sort of pieced together into one of those performance videos that you're seeing going around viral over the internet. And so they're all playing at home and recording themselves at home, but it's a really beautiful video, and the song is unbelievable to begin with, and it's been out for decades now, but this particular version of the song is just like super powerful and Kurt is just literally playing his tail off. I think you'll really dig it, even if you're not a jazz guitar fan, there's something there for everyone, there's a strong melody for somebody to sing along to, and honestly, I've probably played it 150 times now. Yes, I am unashamedly a super fan.
So let's talk about that three-day weekend.
A few weeks ago, Andrew Yang came out with a quote saying that from people's mental health sake, they should move to a four-day work week rather than a five-day work week. Obviously, that would then move our weekends to being three days long instead of two days long, and citing that it's really good for mental health and a myriad of other reasons such as productivity in the workplace, etcetera. That's really crazy to even think about. To begin with, 40% of an increase by any standard is amazing, this idea of a four-day work week is nothing new, and only recently has this been revisited and sort of gotten a lot more traction with the current state of the coronavirus. And everybody's mental health being a little bit weak, Yang also has an opinion that if it's a four-day a work week commitment, then you might be able to entice more people all come into the workforce or maybe fit people schedule better based on their own limitations at home, some major companies here in America are already switching to a remote first workplace. People like Twitter, square, Coinbase, just to name a few. So as more and more businesses pick up on this idea, I started to wonder what would that do to the musician entertainment community?
First off, when do people consume entertainment?
Usually it's on the weekends, that's the reason why Friday and Saturday nights are always the artist busiest time of the week, adding an extra day to your work week in the high paying part of your week could really do an amazing thing for the entertainment community. dream with me here for just one second or a few minutes, if it was a four-day work week... Say, Monday through Thursday, Thursday would then become the new Friday. Friday would become just like Saturday, and Sunday will always be Sunday.Hypothetically, this could be a huge win for the musician and artist community, and it would jump start this economy of which currently musicians and artists are getting left out in the cold. So I crunched a few numbers and I thought this would just be fun to share, so here goes, let's say the average performing musician, and that... I mean, by somebody who just plays gigs for a living.
Let's say that musician makes 450 on a Friday and a Saturday night... Usually on a Friday, there's a patio gig or something, if you're just a working musician and maybe that pays like 150 bucks, and then maybe you probably like a wedding or a private event or just a higher profile gig in general, and that pays 300 bucks on a Saturday, that 450 times four equals 1800 a month. Now, that's not a lot to think about, but when you add it up over, say, an entire week's worth of income, so maybe you have a Sunday gig, or maybe you have a teaching job during the week, or maybe you pick up some random gigs during the week, as well, it all kinda adds it to being a decent living, but still the crux of your income is that Friday and Saturday... So if we were to add an extra weekend day and make Friday like Saturday and Thursday like Friday, you could potentially add another 1200 a month just from adding that extra day of the week, people need to be entertained when they're at work, they're not being entertained, the reason why a Friday and Saturdays are the way they are for the entertainment industry is because that's when people want to be entertained, they're not at work. They don't have to wake up the next day and go to work. So that turned your Thursday night into the 150 night, the Friday and the Saturday night, both into 300 nights, which equals... That's right, 750 per week. Which doesn't include your Sundays or anything from Monday through Wednesday.
What's your grand total from three nights of quality work time?
That's right, 3000 in one month. Now, I know I'm being a little wishful thinking for the second weekend day being 300, but just dream with me here, that's huge. The potential upside from adding this extra day really benefits the entertainment community, and I think it's something that Corporate America should maybe think about, if it's statistically starting to benefit everyone to stay at home and work and their productivity is rising, that gives corporations that extra chance to save money on all of their overhead expenses with commercial properties and stuff, where they've had that traditionally, how all these people in one place to work, to pass those savings on down to the musician who usually entertains when people are off would be a great trade and would really jumpstart this musician community, while it's very obvious that this probably isn't going to happen in widespread fashion any time soon, it is really nice to think about, isn't it? And ultimately, if we're benefiting mental health, isn't that a win?