Bernie Sanders and parts of the Democratic Party are pushing for the U.S. to implement a four-day work week, citing advancements in automation coupled with soaring corporate profits.
The bill, led by Senator Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, is called the “Thirty-Two Hour Work Week Act.” It would lower the standard federal work week from 40 hours to 32, Knewz.com has learned.
Sanders and Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) introduced the bill on Thursday, March 14. They argued that progress in artificial intelligence and automation would make up for the proposed reduction in human hours worked every week, CNBC reports.
According to the bill, modifying the standard work week would mean employees would receive one and a half times their salary if they worked more than 32 hours in seven days.
It also would apply those overtime rules to somebody who works more than eight hours a day, while any shift that extended beyond 12 hours would require the employer to double the employee’s pay during that period.
If passed, the bill would not immediately reduce the work week from 40 to 32. Rather, 180 days after implementation, the standard work week would be reduced from 40 to 38 hours for one year.
Then, year two would be 36 hours, year three would be 34 hours, and the workweek would be reduced to 32 hours at the end of the third year.
The bill would also ban lowering an employee’s salary to adjust for the 20% drop in working time.
“Moving to a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay is not a radical idea,” said Sanders in a statement.
He claimed that the American workforce is 400% more efficient than in the 1940s but that “millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago.”
The senator cited statistics that said 40% of Americans work 50 hours per week and that 18.5% – or 28.5 million people – work 60 hours per week. Additionally, those statistics do not account for people who work multiple jobs.
The press release said more than 8 million Americans work multiple jobs, with 4.7 million working a second part-time job.
“It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life. It is time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay,” said Sanders.
Sanders cited artificial intelligence as a primary motivation for promoting the bill.
Artificial intelligence is expected to make corporations more efficient, which has created widespread concern about large-scale job loss. Theoretically, the shorter workweek would allow companies to integrate AI while allowing people to spend more time with their families.
“The Thirty-Two-Hour Workweek Act would allow hardworking Americans to spend more time with their families while protecting their wages and making sure profits aren’t only going to a select few,” said Senator Laphonza Butler, a Democrat from California.
Republicans blasted the bill, NBC News reports, saying it would destroy small businesses that require long hours and often have to stay open six or seven days a week. They added that it would add additional challenges to the retail sector, forcing them to hire more people even as they struggle to fill their existing openings.
The post Bernie Sanders Proposes Cutting 40-Hour Work Week to 32 Hours in New Bill appeared first on Knewz.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Kevin McSpadden
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://knewz.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.