Bernie Sanders, the self-described socialist, former Democratic presidential candidate, and current independent senator from Vermont, is at it again.
For years, he has supported the worst health care, education, and tax policies imaginable.
Sanders supports a single-payer, national health insurance program, free at the point of service, with no networks, premiums, deductibles, or copays. He supports free college tuition, canceling all student loan debt, capping student loan interest rates at 1.88 percent, and expanding Pell Grants. He supports a 100 percent tax on all income over $1 billion and a variety of other tax increases.
Now Sanders has introduced a bill, the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act, to move the United States to a four-day workweek without any reduction in pay or benefits. It would do this by moving the threshold at which overtime must be paid.
Currently, according to the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA):
Unless exempt, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay. There is no limit in the Act on the number of hours employees aged 16 and older may work in any workweek. The FLSA does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or regular days of rest, unless overtime is worked on such days.
The Act applies on a workweek basis. An employee’s workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not coincide with the calendar week, but may begin on any day and at any hour of the day. Different workweeks may be established for different employees or groups of employees. Averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted. Normally, overtime pay earned in a particular workweek must be paid on the regular pay day for the pay period in which the wages were earned.
Employees are not allowed to waive their right to overtime pay.
According to the official bill summary, the Thirty-Two Hour Work Week Act would:
- Reduce the standard workweek from 40 to 32 hours over four years by lowering the maximum hours threshold for overtime compensation for nonexempt employees.
- Require overtime pay at time and a half for workdays longer than eight hours, and overtime pay at double a worker’s regular pay for workdays longer than 12 hours.
- Protect workers’ pay and benefits to ensure that a reduction in the workweek does not cause a loss in pay.
Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) has introduced companion legislation in the House. The act has been endorsed by various labor unions.
Said Sen. Sanders:
Moving to a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay is not a radical idea. 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. It is time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay.
In the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Republicans balked at the proposed legislation. Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said of the proposal:
Workers will be the ones who would pay — not get paid extra. The government mandating a 32-hour workweek requiring businesses to increase pay at least an extra 25 percent per hour would frankly destroy some employers.
If this policy is implemented, it would threaten millions of small businesses operating on a razor-thin margin because they’re unable to find enough workers.
Cassidy also criticized Sanders for not implementing a 32-hour workweek for his congressional staff.
As usual, Republicans fail to see the real issue.
Whether labor unions support a 32-hour workweek and American businesses oppose it is immaterial. Whether a 32-hour workweek would harm small businesses more than large businesses is inconsequential. Whether large corporations can “afford” to give their employees a 32-hour work week is irrelevant. Whether American workers are more productive now than they were generations ago is beside the point. Whether Americans work more hours than other wealthy nations is neither here nor there. Whether more jobs would be shipped overseas or replaced with automation with a 32-hour workweek is of no consequence. Whether many full-time workers would be let go, and more lower-paid, part-time workers hired in their place, is unimportant.
The real issue is simply this: What is the federal government doing mandating how long the work week should be? What authority did Congress have to pass the FLSA or have a Department of Labor in the first place? Republicans who criticize Sanders’s proposed 32-hour workweek all accept the legitimacy of these things. But the government has no more authority to institute a 32-hour workweek than it does a 40-hour workweek.
In a free society, the length of the workweek, the length of the workday, hourly pay, overtime pay, sick pay, vacation pay, family leave, work hours, breaks and meal periods, and double-time pay are matters between employers and employees that would be determined solely by contract or agreement.
In a free society, government would not interfere in any way with the employer-employee relationship.