A Congressman Just Introduced Legislation for a Four-Day Workweek

It seems some Members of Congress despise the five-day workweek as a lot as the remainder of us. This week, Rep. Mark Takano of California launched groundbreaking laws meant to make four-day workweeks the norm within the US, as a substitute of the Monday-through-Friday grind full-time employees have realized to just accept as inevitable.

“Many countries and businesses that have experimented with a four-day workweek found it to be an overwhelming success as productivity grew and wages increased,” mentioned Takano in a statement in regards to the proposed laws. He went on so as to add that particularly after a pandemic that left so many Americans unemployed and unsure about their monetary futures, embracing a shorter workweek would “allow more people to participate in the labor market at better wages.”

Takano got here up with a intelligent option to flip the 5-day, 40-hour workweek into one which lasts 4 days—and 32 hours—as a substitute. Specifically, his drafted laws would decrease the utmost hour threshold for additional time pay beneath the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). For these unaware, the FLSA is a federal labor law handed again within the late Thirties that provides most employees throughout the nation the suitable to a minimal wage, and entry to “time-and-a-half” additional time pay when these employees are on the clock for greater than 40 hours per week.

By decreasing the edge for what’s and isn’t “overtime,” Takano’s proposal argues that extra folks would have the ability to entry a few of that candy candy additional time pay that’s at the moment accessible to these working greater than 40 hours per week.

“I am introducing this legislation to reduce the standard workweek to 32 hours because—now more than ever—people continue to work longer hours while their pay remains stagnant,” Takano went on. “We cannot continue to accept this as our reality.”

The concept of a 32-hour workweek has been gaining steam elsewhere world wide. Back in 2019, John McDonnell—who was then a senior chancellor with the UK’s Labour Party—went on the record saying {that a} 32-hour workweek can be potential throughout the coming decade. More lately, Spain poured 50 million euros (roughly $60 million USD), right into a nationwide pilot for the four-day workweek. Over the following three years, the Spanish authorities can be funding corporations that want a hand making the swap to the 32-hour mannequin; and if it takes off, the nation can be the primary to implement the four-day commonplace on the nationwide degree. And that’s except for the same (already profitable trials) we’ve seen in Iceland, Japan, and New Zealand.

Of course, California’s proposed laws goes to face an uphill battle earlier than it makes its means into Senate for approval—it nonetheless must be reviewed by a committee and the House of Representatives—all common components of the general churn of turning a invoice into regulation. And undoubtedly, there’s going to be individuals who take ire with Takano’s option to concentrate on FLSA, which doesn’t apply to some employees, like personal contractors or these within the gig economic system. But on the very least, a invoice like this might spur all employers to rethink their coverage across the weekend.