RUSS BYNUMThe senior senator from Vermont's proposal seeks to reduce the standard workweek over a four-year period.introduced a bill that would shorten to 32 hours the amount of time many Americans can work each weekGiven advances in automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, Sanders says U.S. companies can afford to give employees more time off without cutting their pay and benefits.
Sanders says the worktime reductions would be phased in over four years. He held a hearing on the proposal Thursday in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, of which Sanders is the chairman.One recent study of British companies that agreed to adopt a 32-hour workweek concluded that employees came to work less stressed and more focused while revenues remained steady or increased.
"The majority of employees register an increase in their productivity over the trial. They are more energized, focused and capable," Juliet Shor, a Boston College sociology professor and a lead researcher on the UK study, told Sanders' Senate committee. GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said paying workers the same wages for fewer hours would force employers to pass the cost of hiring more workers along to consumers.
"Do we continue the trend that technology only benefits the people on top, or do we demand that these transformational changes benefit working people?" Sanders said. "And one of the benefits must be a lower workweek, a 32-hour workweek."The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, restricted child labor and imposed other workplace protections that included limiting the workweek to 44 hours.
In the 1830s, coal miners and textile workers began pushing back against workdays of up to 14 hours. After the Civil War, the abolition of slavery caused those in the U.S. to take a fresh look at workers' rights. Unions rallied around the slogan: "Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what you will."