Get ready for a long weekend at Bernie’s!
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants Americans to follow in the footsteps of some lawmakers in Congress and cut back on their working hours while getting the same pay.
The self-described “Democratic socialist” passionately advocated for a 32-hour workweek as the national standard while chairing a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing Thursday.
“American workers are now over 400% more productive than they were in the 1940s,” noted Sanders, 82.
“Almost all of the economic gains of that technological transformation have gone straight to the top, while wages for workers have remained stagnant or even worse.”
Sanders unveiled the “Thirty-Two Hour Work Week Act” Wednesday, and insisted it was “not a radical idea.”
“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,” he said in a statement. “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.”
The bill would pare the length of the standard working week over the course of four years, while reducing the threshold for overtime compensation at time and a half to workdays that last longer than eight hours and double pay for shifts of more than 12 hours.
Back in 1938, then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established the right to receive a minimum wage and time-and-a-half overtime pay for those working more than 40 hours per week.
A 2019 Gallup survey found that over half of adults in the US reported working over 40 hours a week for full-time jobs.
Sanders cited France, which has a 35-hour workweek and has debated lowering it to 32, as a model for how nations can cultivate a culture in which their citizens work less.
Conservative critics mocked the idea, with one calling the legislation “the policy equivalent of the kid who ran for class president in elementary school promising he would abolish homework and make every day ice cream Friday.”
“In a world where it’s easier than ever to hire overseas talent,” another opponent said, “this is insane and directly hurts the people he’s trying to help.”
“Forcing businesses to pay for less productivity doesn’t lead to better outcomes for workers. It results in higher inflation, reliance on automation, and less jobs,” still another said. “Since Bernie has taken a salary from taxpayers for 40 years, he would know nothing about this.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the ranking member of the HELP Committee, tore into the plan.
“A 32 hour workweek for 40 hours of pay is one more example of the federal government promising free money. Nothing is free. It would kill jobs and increase inflation,” he said.
Despite skepticism, polls have pegged interest among voters in establishing a national four-day week, and some states such as Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have explored the idea as well.
