California is taking the lead on making the four-day workweek a reality.
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State Assembly members are proposing a bill that would create shortened workweek for non-union, hourly workers at companies with 500 or more employees.
The bill, authored by Asm. Evan Low and Asm. Cristina Garcia, is currently moving through committee. It’s similar to a federal bill proposed by Rep. Mark Takano, also from California, that is currently awaiting a vote in the House Education and Labor Committee.
Low told Insider support surrounding Takano’s bill partially inspired this one: “As we come out of the COVID pandemic, I am excited about how we reimagine our workforce while uplifting the voices of workers to get back in the job market in response to the Great Resignation,” Low said.
Garcia told Insider that now is the perfect time for discussions surrounding a lessened workweek, especially as labor shortages continue across the country and companies begin experimenting with the concept. “Two years into this pandemic, you see a moment of employees driving change and employees reimagining what they think their work week or their work-life balance should be,” Garcia said.
It could take years before a proposed bill like this can become a law, but “there’s been a lot of enthusiasm more recently now that this bill was introduced out there,” Garcia added.
AB 2932 would change state law and shorten the workweek to 32 hours but compensate employees at a similar pay rate. Employees who work over 32 hours would receive overtime at 1.5 times their hourly wages.
Companies around the world have tested or embraced the 4-day workweek, like Microsoft, which reported a 40% increase in productivity, and Buffer, which found that employees are less likely to burn out. The country of Iceland also had a trial of the 4-day workweek, which was so successful that 86% of the country’s workforce moved to a shorter workweek.
Critics say it’s a ‘job killer’
Ashley Hoffman, policy advocate for the California Chamber of Commerce, argued in a letter to Low that the bill is a “job killer” and would present added costs to employers.
“AB 2932’s impact on labor costs in California will discourage job growth in the state and likely reduce opportunities for workers,” Hoffman wrote.
In a comment to Insider, a spokesperson from the Chamber of Commerce said they would not be able to support a proposal that “requires employers to pay for 32 hours of work at the rate they are currently paying for a 40 hour work week.”
Garcia said that although labor costs are a concern, she feels a bill targeting larger companies would help protect smaller businesses. Additionally, she said boosting employee morale through a shortened workweek could help companies with hiring and retention.
“Especially if you’re seeing more productivity, you’re seeing less attrition, all those things are good things for companies,” Garcia said. “All those things help with the bottom line.”
They should allow all the legislators who have founded a company which grew to 500 employees vote on the bill.
What employee wouldn’t be happier — less “burned out” — to get the same pay for less work?
Another manifestation of the left’s persistent giveaways to get votes.
What wouldn’t cost anything would be mandating that large companies stagger their workers’ hours, especially in dense cities, to cut down on traffic jams which waste expensive gas and cause pollution
Communism at it’s best!!!
They go after the large companies with their communism.
They then slide it down to 200 workers.
Next thing you know they will force small companies with 1-10 employees to have to increase minimum wage that kills the middle class workers. (OH wait they already did that…)
What else would you expect from a pack of progressives who produce the stupidest ideas known to man? First, they want equality but in effect they want to fill quotas. I don’t know about you, but I could care less what color my airline pilot is as long as he or she is “QUALIFIED”, not the pilot who didn’t pass his flight hours but rather is a “gender contender, minority or whatever else they need to make themselves feel better types”. I would also like my President coherent but that hasn’t happened this term either. That was the best they had to offer a hollow suit that Obama manipulates. They think of low flush toilets but you have to flush 5 times wasting much more water to get the solids down. They introduce a mercury filled lightbulb and expect people to actually have a conscience and deposit the expended bulb in a hazardous waste facility. Oophs, the landfills now contain more mercury than every before. They get rid of all of the reclamation facilities thus the climate control people aren’t even living up to their “green recycling friendly” facade. They want to indoctrinate your toddler with sex teaching them all about their perverse thoughts and well we all know how common core curriculum worked out. With a D acceptable for graduating, you can’t get any worse than public education, the institution of union bullying is it any wonder California is the 48th worst educated with more money being expended on students than anywhere else. What I am trying to clarify is progressive Democrats have ruined America from the inside out, winning the war of destroying America from within. What a bunch of lowly locus, they need to be deported to a communist country and enjoy life away from this place that they hate so much.