Bernie Sanders unveils 32-hour workweek bill

[Redban]

Let's listen to a guy who never worked a full time job till he was 40, someone so lazy thst he was kicked out of a hippy commune, for being too lazy

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday introduced a bill to establish a standard four-day workweek in the United States without any reduction in pay.

The bill, over a four-year period, would lower the threshold required for overtime pay, from 40 hours to 32 hours. It would require overtime pay at a rate of 1.5 times a worker’s regular salary, for workdays longer than 8 hours, and it would require overtime pay at double a worker’s regular salary for workdays longer than 20 hours.


The Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act would also protect workers’ pay and benefits to ensure there’s no loss in pay, according to a press release.

A press release described the legislation as “an important step toward ensuring that workers share in the massive increase in productivity driven by artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology.”

“Moving to a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay is not a radical idea,” Sanders said in a press release. “Today, American workers are over 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago. That has got to change.”

“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. It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life,” he wrote.

Sanders introduced the legislation with Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), and Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) introduced companion legislation in the House.

“While CEOs’ wages continue to increase, our workers are finding themselves doing more, yet earning less than they have in decades,” Butler wrote in a statement. “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.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4530301-bernie-sanders-unveils-32-hour-workweek-bill/

[Joe Republic]

4-day work week trial yields overwhelming success in U.K., researchers say

LONDON (AP) — Work less, get more.

A trial of a four-day workweek in Britain, billed as the world's largest, has found that an overwhelming majority of the 61 companies that participated from June to December will keep going with the shorter hours and that most employees were less stressed and had better work-life balance.

That was all while companies reported revenue largely stayed the same during the trial period last year and even grew compared with the same six months a year earlier, according to findings released this week.

…

Not surprisingly, employees reported benefits, with 71 percent less burned out, 39 percent less stressed and 48 percent more satisfied with their job than before the trial.

Of the workers, 60 percent said it was easier to balance work and responsibilities at home, while 73 percent reported increased satisfaction with their lives. Fatigue was down, people were sleeping more and mental health improved, the findings show.

[Beet]

In a short essay published in 1930, the world's most important economist, John Maynard Keynes, predicted that within 100 years, most people would be working no more than 15 hours a week.

He believed the standard of life for most people would be four to eight times better for us all by 2030, and that for the majority, working would be optional.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/a-century-ago-it-was-predicted-we-d-work-just-15-hours-a-week-by-2030-what-happened-20231204-p5eoqf.html

The optimism of the early 20th century seems unfathomable.

[jojoju1998]

Automation, Artifical Intelligence, will make work kind of redundant in the future, so the very concept of " working harder " is getting kind of old.

Meanwhile in South Korea, the Govenrment there almost implemented a 69 hour work week.

And no wonder why the birth rate there is so low.

[jojoju1998]

4-day work week trial yields overwhelming success in U.K., researchers say

LONDON (AP) — Work less, get more.

A trial of a four-day workweek in Britain, billed as the world's largest, has found that an overwhelming majority of the 61 companies that participated from June to December will keep going with the shorter hours and that most employees were less stressed and had better work-life balance.

That was all while companies reported revenue largely stayed the same during the trial period last year and even grew compared with the same six months a year earlier, according to findings released this week.

…

Not surprisingly, employees reported benefits, with 71 percent less burned out, 39 percent less stressed and 48 percent more satisfied with their job than before the trial.

Of the workers, 60 percent said it was easier to balance work and responsibilities at home, while 73 percent reported increased satisfaction with their lives. Fatigue was down, people were sleeping more and mental health improved, the findings show.

I will point out that this is more of a boon for white collar workers because of the nature of their work, and the fact that they are salaried.


Furthermore, assuming this passes, wouldn't companies  just save costs, by further automating and AIfying positions further ?

[Joe Republic]

Furthermore, assuming this passes, wouldn't companies  just save costs, by further automating and AIfying positions further ?

It's coming anyway.  The trucking and taxi (inc. rideshare) employment sectors, to name an example, is about to be decimated within the next few decades by the expansion of self-driving vehicles.  That's an estimated 4 million Americans about to lose their jobs to automation.

A sufficiently forward-planning and people-centric government (i.e. not the Republicans) could then tax part of those savings in order to fund universal basic income.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Furthermore, assuming this passes, wouldn't companies  just save costs, by further automating and AIfying positions further ?

It's coming anyway.  The trucking and taxi (inc. rideshare) employment sectors, to name an example, is about to be decimated within the next few decades by the expansion of self-driving vehicles.  That's an estimated 4 million Americans about to lose their jobs to automation.

A sufficiently forward-planning and people-centric government (i.e. not the Republicans) could then tax part of those savings in order to fund universal basic income.

AI is no where near fully replacing jobs, least of all driving. It’s a useful tool at this point but it’s not something standalone

[President Johnson]

4-day work week trial yields overwhelming success in U.K., researchers say

LONDON (AP) — Work less, get more.

A trial of a four-day workweek in Britain, billed as the world's largest, has found that an overwhelming majority of the 61 companies that participated from June to December will keep going with the shorter hours and that most employees were less stressed and had better work-life balance.

That was all while companies reported revenue largely stayed the same during the trial period last year and even grew compared with the same six months a year earlier, according to findings released this week.

…

Not surprisingly, employees reported benefits, with 71 percent less burned out, 39 percent less stressed and 48 percent more satisfied with their job than before the trial.

Of the workers, 60 percent said it was easier to balance work and responsibilities at home, while 73 percent reported increased satisfaction with their lives. Fatigue was down, people were sleeping more and mental health improved, the findings show.

I would definitely support this becoming the new norm in Western industrialized countries. The eight hour work day was actually invented a century ago and is no longer necessary in most cases. However, a four-day-week only makes sense with full payment and actual reduction to 32 hours instead of working ten hours on four days.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Lol this definitely won't be a thing in my line of work.

[Joe Republic]

AI is no where near fully replacing jobs, least of all driving. It’s a useful tool at this point but it’s not something standalone

Now, sure.  I said within the next few decades.  20 years ago we didn't have smartphones, YouTube, or music streaming, and now they are ubiquitous.

By 2027 fully autonomous trucks, including truck platoons of two or more trucks in which all trucks have a driver, but only the driver of the lead truck has full control of the vehicle, are anticipated to appear on highways.

How long will it take for trucking companies to keep paying drivers in the following trucks to sit there without any incidents to justify their paychecks?

[Joe Republic]

However, a four-day-week only makes sense with full payment and actual reduction to 32 hours instead of working ten hours on four days.

I work ten hours on four days.  If I must work 40 hours a week, then this is my preference.  In fact, I don't intend to ever go back to a 5x8 schedule.

[Crumpets]

Meanwhile in South Korea, the Govenrment there almost implemented a 69 hour work week.

Nice

[GP270watch]

This should happen. There was a time the 40 hour work week was considered radical, it wasn't.

[Flats the Flounder]

Based Bernie, hope this bill or something like it passes in the future

[DrScholl]

Redban do you even work? You are on here non stop I find it hard to believe you have a job let alone room to call anyone lazy.

As someone who didn't vote for Sanders I think this is one of his best ideas. People are overworked.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Why not a 31 hour work week?

[S019]

It's not going to pass. The chances it gets past the filibuster are zero, and if for some reason, they use reconciliation on this, the best case scenario for it is failing in the House.

I think the best way to go about this is more flexible hours and allowing people to work more if they wish to earn more money.

[Clarence Boddicker]

Meanwhile in South Korea, the Govenrment there almost implemented a 69 hour work week.

Nice

[FT-02 Senator A.F.E. 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

Imagine actually f-ing complaining about NOT working longer hours. Like holy hell.

Meanwhile in South Korea, the Govenrment there almost implemented a 69 hour work week.

Nice

Nice

[DaleCooper]

Most workers don't even work 32-hours in a 40-hour work week. Why not cut eight hours of pretending off of that?

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

AI is no where near fully replacing jobs, least of all driving. It’s a useful tool at this point but it’s not something standalone

Now, sure.  I said within the next few decades.  20 years ago we didn't have smartphones, YouTube, or music streaming, and now they are ubiquitous.

By 2027 fully autonomous trucks, including truck platoons of two or more trucks in which all trucks have a driver, but only the driver of the lead truck has full control of the vehicle, are anticipated to appear on highways.

How long will it take for trucking companies to keep paying drivers in the following trucks to sit there without any incidents to justify their paychecks?

Have Smartphones, or streaming removed jobs from the market? AI will likely make some jobs obsolete, mostly menial ones, but it’ll be minimal. It will also make many jobs easier over time if it ever gets beyond an advanced autocomplete.

[Mr. Smith]

Imagine actually f-ing complaining about NOT working longer hours. Like holy hell.

Meanwhile in South Korea, the Govenrment there almost implemented a 69 hour work week.

Nice

Nice

It's not about that.

It's about complaining about everyone else not working more hours, making basic services a bit more inconvenient.

[dead0man]

obviously it depends on the type of job being done as to whether this is a good idea or not, you one size fits all people need to get out of your little boxes.  If every employer had to pay overtime to everyone working over 32 hours in a week, inflation is going to go up a lot.

[Indy Texas]

During the Gilded Age, before federal labor standards and union bargaining, 72-hour-weeks where you worked in a factory 12 hours a day, 6 days a week were perfectly normal.

And when people called for shorter work weeks, the very concerned factory owners insisted that was economically impossible, they could never possibly afford that and they would have no choice but to close down if the meddling bureaucrats and labor agitators had their way.

[dead0man]

During the Gilded Age, before federal labor standards and union bargaining, 72-hour-weeks where you worked in a factory 12 hours a day, 6 days a week were perfectly normal.

And when people called for shorter work weeks, the very concerned factory owners insisted that was economically impossible, they could never possibly afford that and they would have no choice but to close down if the meddling bureaucrats and labor agitators had their way.

sure, and where we draw the line is the argument we are having now.  Why not a 24 hour work week?  And it will have an affect on prices and wages that will not be good for anyone.  Maybe the positives outweigh the negatives (which is likely impossible to know at this point), but to ignore the negatives because assholes 100 years ago used similarly sounding arguments is, and you know this, dumb.