About one-third of Brazilians in formal employment have a "6x1" workweek—six days of work followed by one day of rest—which is particularly common in sectors such as air travel, hotels, healthcare, retail, and food service. In late May, Brazil's Chamber of Deputies approved a constitutional amendment that would effectively ban this work arrangement, sending the proposal to the Senate for ratification.
The proposal would reduce Brazil's constitutionally set cap on weekly working hours from 44 to 40 and require two paid rest days per week. In Brazil, service workers are typically paid a fixed monthly salary rather than an hourly wage, as is more common in the United States. Because the amendment would prohibit employers from reducing those salaries to reflect the shorter schedule, employers would have to pay the same monthly wage for roughly 10 percent fewer hours of work.
