Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) today announced that this Thursday he will introduce legislation to establish a standard 32-hour workweek in America with no loss in pay – an important step toward ensuring that workers share in the massive increase in productivity driven by artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology. Sanders is joined on the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act in the Senate by Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) and in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) who introduced companion legislation.
Read the bill summary, here. [PDF]
Read the bill text, here. [PDF]
The Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act would:
- Reduce the standard workweek from 40 to 32 hours over four years by lowering the maximum hours threshold for overtime compensation for non-exempt employees.
- Require overtime pay at time and a half for workdays longer than eight hours, and overtime pay at double a worker’s regular pay for workdays longer than 12 hours.
- Protect workers’ pay and benefits to ensure that a reduction in the workweek does not cause a loss in pay.
https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/1be2bg5/bernie_is_fighting_for_the_4day_workweek_in_the/
I love the way Sanders’ legislation always needs to have that little tail on it (with no loss in pay). Like when he was doing M4A, he had to explain that, while taxes go up, they will go up less than the amount you pay to an insurance company.
The “higher taxes but lower overall costs” talking point kind of annoys me, because basically every other highly developed nation (and a number of developing nations) provides better healthcare than the US with lower government expenditure. There’s no need to raise taxes specifically for the purpose of transitioning to universal healthcare other than US healthcare companies charging grossly extortionate prices, which the government can make them stop doing, and it’d help public understanding of the situation if this was brought up more.