His proposal would pare down the workweek over a four-year period. The 40-hour workweek has stood as the standard in the U.S. since it became enshrined in federal law in 1940.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/sVDYB

Some key excerpts:

Senator Bernie Sanders this week unveiled legislation to reduce the standard workweek in the United States from 40 hours to 32, without a reduction in pay

The law, if passed, would pare down the workweek over a four-year period, lowering the threshold at which workers would be eligible to receive overtime pay.

Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, said at the hearing such a reduction would hurt employers, ship jobs overseas and cause dramatic spikes in consumer prices.

Mr. Sanders is far from the first to propose the idea, which has been floated by Richard Nixon, pitched by autoworkers and experimented with by companies ranging from Shake Shack to Kickstarter and Unilever’s New Zealand unit.

Representative Mark Takano, Democrat of California, introduced the 32-Hour Workweek Act in the House in 2021, and has reintroduced it as a companion bill to the one sponsored by Mr. Sanders in the Senate.

In proposing the legislation, Mr. Sanders cited a trial conducted by 61 companies in Britain in 2022, in which most of the companies that went down to a four-day workweek saw that revenues and productivity remained steady, while attrition dropped significantly. The study was conducted by a nonprofit, 4 Day Week Global, with researchers at Cambridge University, Boston College and a think tank, Autonomy.

  • katy ✨
    1·
    9 months ago

    because it wasn’t a garbage bill; it was a great bill that continues to help millions of people

    if nothing can be legislatively accomplished without handing the president a supermajority

    nothing happening without 2/3rds of a majority is why republicans haven’t been able to pass don’t say gay bills and ban abortion nationally…

    • underisk@lemmy.ml
      1·
      9 months ago

      they got their wall, though, and it wasn’t based on some democrat written border bill, though the dems have been more than happy to keep building it for them and even give them more concessions on border policy. they killed roe v. wade and didn’t need congressional approval for that, either. the ACA certainly helped plently of people, the private insurance industry among them. other countries manage to have universal healthcare without all this bullshit so why is it apparently impossible to do that here?

      if you’d like an example of the kind of power the president can wield without support of congress, look no further than Biden’s unflinching support and aid for Israel in the face of the genocide in Gaza. or his circumvention of environmental protections to pave the way for trump’s wall.

      • katy ✨
        2·
        9 months ago

        they didn’t get “a wall” though; trump took money from defense and used it for a wall but nothing was actually passed.

        roe was killed by the courts not in congress.

        labour took years to get the nhs up but be careful what you wish for because the tories are currently using the control of it to ban trans healthcare. the us also doesn’t have a parliamentary system and i doubt the nhs could be created in the uk today.

        and a) supporting israel has been public policies for years b) biden hasn’t been unflinching in his support; he’s been very publicly critical of netanyahu c) israel was STILL attacked by hamas who are not necessarily saints when it comes to how they treat both israeli and palestinian citizens.

        • underisk@lemmy.ml
          2·
          9 months ago

          the history of Israel and Palestine did not begin on Oct 7. regardless of what you think of Hamas nothing they’ve done could possibly justify the response from Israel. Biden criticizing Bibi is worthless without any action to back it up, especially when the aid and weapons keep flowing regardless.

          as for the NHS, apparently its fine that the ACA is flawed because it helps millions of people, but the NHS doesn’t also get similar deference for doing the same? and for the timeframe: Nancy Pelosi’s original campaign platform included advocacy for universal healthcare, how much more time do they need?

          do democrat presidents not also get to appoint judges? are republicans the only party who can obstruct appointments?

          if they didn’t get their wall, then what is this about?