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”
Some companies here implemented this 4-day week after the pandemic. But many more stuck with staff working from home in jobs that can be done using computers or phones. Now we have deserted office blocks in parts of some cities, and many businesses around them (sandwich bars, pubs, etc) closing down for lack of trade. In the financial district of London, they are even converting some office blocks into apartments.
Best wishes, Pete.
Same thing is happening here, Pete. Office occupancy has plummeted since the pandemic in a lot of towns. There is a push on to convert some of the now empty offices into affordable housing to try to ease the shortage of affordable apartments.
Developers saw the cash…..chuq
The interesting thing with this issue is that both sides are right. Sort of. A 4 day week might work out for white collar workers, but for everyone else? If you work in the service industry, not so much. In the service industry or the trades like electricians, plumbers, etc., there’s no way in hell you can squeeze 40+ hours of work into 32 hours. The extra expense of having to pay an employee time and a half for that extra 8 hours would be enough to put a lot of small plumbing and electrical companies out of business around here.
I see the point but like I stated….the House will not touch this so everything is safe…..chuq
This is going to be one of those situations where if it happens, it is businesses themselves and their employees that make it happen. You can’t depend on those whining little crybabies in Congress to do anything really meaningful any more. We’ve tried to bypass the GOP state assembly by passing town and city ordinances to do things like, oh, mandating employers provide employees with sick days. Milwaukee did that a few years ago. Within a matter of days the legislature, along with then governor Walker, passed laws to make it impossible for the city to enforce that.
In some cases it does make sense to go to a shorter work week, and some places do that. There some factories here that have a 4 day week, but they work 10 hour shifts instead of 8 hour. For the most part the employees seem to love it.
I proposed that where I worked….the n10 hour 4 days thing for we worked outside and in Summer we had many problems with the heat….but management shot it down….but they work in A/A and had no idea what it was like. It does make sense. chuq
Toward the end of my work life, I had so much accrued vacation to use up, I took Friday’s off most weeks. Those three-day weekends were much appreciated. I let my workload for the week determine which weeks were going to be four days long. Taking time off this way also let work accumulate for the next week. I preferred to be too busy all the time instead of taking part on the office politics.
Office politics has ruined a good job on many occasions. chuq
Every place I’ve worked! Once I learned to identify the players and their games, I knew how to keep out of their way and let them take the low road to big promotions and, in enough instances, big falls when they ran into higher level players who played for higher stakes. I came to appreciate that lovely German word “Schadenfreude. I’m not to proud to admit to feeling that many times during almost 36 years at my last job! Schadenfreude has an interesting history, actually and here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry for it. I was unaware of an English word mentioned in the entry that is the equivalent: epicaricacy. I’ll stick with that German mouthful!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude
Thanx for the link and I shall check it out. chuq
A 4 hour work day would be just as good as a 4 day work week if you ask me.
I will agree to that chuq