Swedes looking forward to a six-hour workday just got some bad news: thecosts outweigh the benefits.

A two-year experiment cutting working hours while maintainingpay levels for nurses at Svartedalen old people’s home in theSwedish city of Gothenburg is now nearing the end. The take awaywas largely positive, with nurses at the home feeling healthier,which reduced sick-leave, and patient care improving.

Related: Study: 25-hour work weekhealthiest

But the city has no plans in making the measure permanent orbroadening it to other facilities. To do that it would need muchmore money and even help from the national government. To cover thereduced hours for the 68 nurses at the home it had to hire 17 extrastaff at a cost of about 12 million kronor ($1.3 million).

“It’s associated with higher costs, absolutely,” said DanielBernmar, a local left-wing politician responsible for running themunicipality’s elderly care. “It’s far too expensive to carry out ageneral shortening of working hours within a reasonable timeframe.”

The Gothenburg experiment is just the latest in a series ofshorter working day trials carried out in Sweden, a country thatprides itself on its generous welfare state. The trial has beenclosely watched globally, with labor activists touting progressiveSweden as a role model in shortening working hours.

French debate

The debate over working hours is taking center stage in France,where Conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon has vowedto scrap the 35-hour work week, which he says has “done a lot ofdamage.”

Related: Will 4.5 days be the new workweek?

While historical data shows that the length of average workingdays has fallen in Sweden over the past century, there arecurrently no plans to establish six-hour working days at a nationallevel.

Still, the added hiring by the municipality has helped thecoffers of the national government by reducing unemployment costsby 4.7 million kronor during the first 18 months of the trial dueto new jobs, according to the interim report.

Bernmar says he’d like to see more studies into whether anabbreviated working day could also result in long-term gains forsociety as a whole. One argument is that it could allow peopleemployed in labor-intensive professions to extend their workinglife.

“I personally believe in shorter working hours as a long-termsolution,” he said. “The richer we become, the more we need to takeadvantage of that wealth in other ways than through a newer car orhigher consumption."

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