Something that I have been thinking about for some years now. Where I worked the Summers are oppressive and the humidity hangs around 90+% daily…..making for your day to be long and miserable….your body is shot by 10 am if you work outside. I think that a 4 day workweek would benefit everyone.
It is good to see the Bernie is still pushing for a better work experience.
The four-day workweek is gaining momentum in Congress: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced legislation Wednesday that would reduce the standard workweek to 32 hours without a pay cut.
The act would shorten the standard workweek over four years by mandating that overtime pay kicks in after 32 hours worked in a week, down from the current 40. Those who work more than 8 hours in a day would get overtime pay at time-and-a-half, and those who work more than 12 hours in a day would be entitled to double their regular pay.
Today’s 40-hour workweek has been federal law since 1940 following the passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Proponents of a shorter workweek say advances in technology have made workers more productive, but have not resulted in higher wages or time back.
“The financial gains from the major advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology must benefit the working class, not just corporate CEOs and wealthy stockholders on Wall Street,” Sanders said in a press release introducing the bill.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/14/sen-bernie-sanders-introduces-4-day-workweek-legislation.html
I think it is a great idea….but you can bet the big business Repubs just don’t see it….
GOP lawmakers pushed back against Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) new proposal for a 32-hour workweek during a committee hearing Thursday, saying such a mandate would hurt workers and crush small businesses.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which Sanders chairs, met to discuss “new technology and increased productivity” and focused on the possibility of a standard four-day work week.
“In reality, there is no free lunch,” Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said of the proposal.
“Workers will be the ones who would pay — not get paid extra. The government mandating a 32-hour workweek requiring businesses to increase pay at least an extra 25 percent per hour, would frankly destroy some employers.”
Sanders introduced a bill Wednesday that would lower the threshold required for overtime pay from 40 hours to 32 hours over four years, arguing the shortened workweek would increase productivity.
Cassidy said many jobs would be shipped overseas or replaced with automation, or businesses would be incentivized to hire more part-time employees to avoid penalties associated with requirements for full-time workers.
“If this policy is implemented, it would threaten millions of small businesses operating on a razor-thin margin because they’re unable to find enough workers,” Cassidy said. “Now they’ve got the same workers, but only for three-quarters of the time, and they have to hire more.”
Republicans pan Sanders’s 32-hour workweek bill
This will go nowhere because business has lots of cash to influence Congress and they are not afraid to use it but are afraid to pay workers better.
Go figure!
That is it for me for this week….I hope everyone has a good and productive weekend.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”