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 lowe…

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 12 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.

  • @[email protected]
    6•4 months ago

    90% of my company is salary and already work more than 40 hours a week. Our hourly employees need to be available to support our salaried employees 5 days a week. It’s exciting to think that we’ll all get Fridays off but I bet most companies would just implement 2 hour staggered lunch breaks and office hours would still be 9-5 but people would only work 6.5 hours a day. I know there would be a mutiny at my firm if suddenly all the lowest level employees got permanent 3 day weekends.

    • @[email protected]
      4•4 months ago

      90% of my company is salary

      This 32 hour workweek act will not apply to you. It only applies to non-exempt workers as it’s an amendment to FLSA. FLSA provides exemptions to overtime based on income or certain responsibilities. It’s also very often mis-applied by businesses who do not want to pay workers for overtime and very rarely challenged.

      My industry is IT. It’s very common that IT support workers making under the income threshold are given exempt status even though their responsibilities are not exempt job duties. There are a shitload of IT support workers.

      • @[email protected]
        4•4 months ago

        Another thing Biden did that people don’t really notice.

        On Sept. 8, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a proposed rule that would increase the salary threshold to $1,059 a week ($55,068 annualized) for the Fair Labor Standard Act’s (FLSA’s) white-collar exemption from overtime pay.

        • @[email protected]
          2•4 months ago

          And why exactly does any labor need to be exempt at all?

          Who the fuck decided your time becomes worthless at Checks Notes 50k. That’s not even enough to pass the “Must make 3x Rent” in the majority of the country?

          • @[email protected]
            4•4 months ago

            If you’re an exec making $350k/year, it might be reasonable to ask you to at least be available 60 hours a week (not every week).

            I certainly agree that $55k is too low, but it’s much better than the $38k it was before. If it were up to me, I’d put it around $200k, indexed to inflation.

      • @[email protected]
        3•4 months ago

        My industry is IT. It’s very common that IT support workers making under the income threshold are given exempt status even though their responsibilities are not exempt job duties. There are a shitload of IT support workers.

        Same here. I am like, great so now ill get paid to work 32 hours, but still work 60.

        • @[email protected]
          3•4 months ago

          It’ll affect a lot of the worst jobs. It’ll make construction stupid expensive.

          I do think a 32 hour work week should be doable. Overtime exemptions are utter bullshit across the board though.

    • @[email protected]
      4•4 months ago

      Might not impact you directly, but as other companies would adopt benefits of it, employees at your company would start to leave for companies that are adjusting their schedule. They’d either be forced to adjust, or risk hitting unsustainable attrition rates

      • @[email protected]
        1•4 months ago

        They’d either be forced to adjust, or risk hitting unsustainable attrition rates

        Checks Notes. Welp a ton of companies are already there with RTO.