Do you support Bernie Sanders' 32 hour work week proposal?

[EMNofSeattle]

Bernie's Proposal

You can read the proposal above, but here is the basic functions:

- The standard work week is 32 hours per week, instead of the 40 hour work week.
- Employers are not allowed to decrease wages or benefits.
- If you work more than 32 hours, you're required to get overtime pay.
- Less money, but more free time and (projected) higher productivity.
- Opponents argue that it will force employers to hire more people.
- Opponents argue it might be assembly-line work force.

Do you support or oppose this?

The length of the work week is not relevant if the government under Biden is going to keep importing millions of foreign nationals every month to undercut American wages.

So you get a 32 hour week then it won’t matter because there will be increased demand for illegal labor and democrats like Bernie will continue to import them

 

[Stealers Wheel]

How about we return to the pre-union days when work was typically 6 days a weeks/12 hours+? And do away with minimum wage! And employers can refuse to hire anyone for any reason. And let's get rid of OSHA while we're at it! And let's get those children back into the sweatshop factories where they belong!

You KNOW I'm being sarcastic, but remember, there are people on this board and in the country who wholeheartedly support everything I've written here.

 

[Stealers Wheel]

NO. It undermines the idea of working to make your own way. It would ultimately harm business production. I know the ones who like this idea say production goes up but there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Businesses would have to have more staff if they wanted to be open 5-6 days a week, more costs. If businesses are only open 4 days, how do you purchase anything, shop, go out for an evening, if people are only working 4 days. It's just a dumb idea. Some say the french do it and others, but remember the Biden administration keeps telling us we have the best economy in the western world. Which is it?

That is, without a doubt, the dumbest thing you have ever written on this board.

A business can't stay open 6-7 days a week or evenings if the employees only work 4 days a week? My! What a dilemma you have!

 

[samiam5211]

32 is way too high.

We should be looking at a 20 hour work week to help dent loss of jobs coming with AI.

Even that probably won't help.

Most people will be looking at a 0 hour work week in 10 years.

 

[RF667799]

I'm grateful for Gen Z, because they are the closest thing I'll have to a union going forward. Their "Ok, **** this" point is refreshing, and employers will ignore that at their peril. I've been watching it happen in real time.

My grandfathers didn't have union's either. They went and organized. Just sayin'.

 

[Helix]

My grandfathers didn't have union's either. They went and organized. Just sayin'.

Ever try to start a union in a right to work for less state?

 

[RF667799]

Ever try to start a union in a right to work for less state?

No. Have you?

My grandfathers organized in a state where armed company goons sometimes worked with the complicity of the government. They weren't in danger of losing their jobs. They could also be in danger of losing their lives.

 

[washunut]

It isn't mandated anywhere.

But a whole shitload of countries have gone to it, and they're doing just fine.

Care to list the countries that lowered the number of hours worked while raising hourly rates by keeping salaries constant. I am going with zero but willing to listen.

 

[Helix]

No. Have you?

My grandfathers organized in a state where armed company goons sometimes worked with the complicity of the government. They weren't in danger of losing their jobs. They could also be in danger of losing their lives.

They'd fire us.

 

[mrjurrs]

It has been almost 100 years since America went to a 40 hour workweek. In that time, workers productivity has increased dramatically.

Who has benefited from that increased productivity? The worker? Nope.

 

[RF667799]

They'd fire us.

As I said, my grandfathers were in jeopardy of losing much more than their jobs.

 

[RF667799]

It has been almost 100 years since America went to a 40 hour workweek. In that time, workers productivity has increased dramatically.

Who has benefited from that increased productivity? The worker? Nope.
View attachment 67499296

Worked much for a living?

I would rather dig a ditch with a hydraulic excavator than a shovel. Much more productive too.

 

[mrjurrs]

Care to list the countries that lowered the number of hours worked while raising hourly rates by keeping salaries constant. I am going with zero but willing to listen.

Salaries are not based on hours worked.

 

[mrjurrs]

There are a lot of studies contradicting your claim as well.

That you are able to source?

 

[mrjurrs]

France also has a lower GDP per capita than Mississippi (which has the lowest in the US).

Man are you reading the graphs wrong.
2022 France GDP @$2.8 trillion
2022 Mississippi GDP @$139 billion

 

[PeacefulWarrior]

32.....still sounds kinda high. imo.

 

[RF667799]

Man are you reading the graphs wrong.
2022 France GDP @$2.8 trillion
2022 Mississippi GDP @$139 billion

"Per capita"

You read the post wrong.

 

[molten_dragon]

I'm not necessarily opposed to a 32 hour work week, but I think Sanders's proposal is flawed in a couple of significant ways.

As it's written, the mandatory overtime over 32 hours only applies to overtime-eligible employees. So the proposal is unenforceable for salaried workers.

The studies that have been done on a 32-hour workweek, the ones that everyone points to which show no loss of productivity, were heavily biased toward white collar office work. There was little to no data to indicate the effects on productivity in manufacturing or service environments. So the sorts of businesses most likely to see benefits from switching to a 32-hour work week won't actually be forced to do so, because they mostly employ salaried labor.

For businesses that decide to switch to a 4-day week, there are also practical concerns. Which 4 days do you pick? Do you let each employee decide? And what if all of the businesses you work with don't pick the same schedule? There probably needs to be some sort of guidance on what the new work week should look like.

As low as unemployment is right now, it seems unlikely that companies which rely heavily on hourly labor would be able to hire additional staff, and they're quite likely to see productivity losses, so they'd just end up keeping people on the same schedules and paying overtime.

For one, that will lead to an increase in the cost of goods and services which use that sort of labor, making it more attractive to offshore manufacturing and reduce human labor in service environments. I also strongly suspect businesses would quit giving cost-of-living raises for awhile to compensate for the huge "raise" that employees will get switching to the 32 hour work week.

 

[devildavid]

Yes, even though I am retired.

 

[RetiredUSN]

That you are able to source?

If you were truly interested without being hung up on your liberal partisan agenda, you would already know.

 

[Helix]

As I said, my grandfathers were in jeopardy of losing much more than their jobs.

The Republicans have made it nearly impossible in their states.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Bernie's Proposal

You can read the proposal above, but here is the basic functions:

- The standard work week is 32 hours per week, instead of the 40 hour work week.
- Employers are not allowed to decrease wages or benefits.
- If you work more than 32 hours, you're required to get overtime pay.
- Less money, but more free time and (projected) higher productivity.
- Opponents argue that it will force employers to hire more people.
- Opponents argue it might be assembly-line work force.

Do you support or oppose this?

I could settle for a compromise where it ends up being four ten hour days instead.
But the idea is really more a case of four days of work and three days off, which not only allows working folks to have more of a life outside work, but for enterprising individuals to
possibly take on additional part time work during the three days off to pad their income.

But Sanders' 32 hour week is an acknowledgment of increased American worker productivity, and I support that as well.
Either way, the world IS moving toward a four day work week slowly but surely and it is time to consider it.

 

[mrjurrs]

If you were truly interested without being hung up on your liberal partisan agenda, you would already know.

So you don't have any. Got it.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

The Republicans have made it nearly impossible in their states.

In 1998 I moved from L.A. to Jonesboro Arkansas to be with the lady who is now my second (and forever) wife.
I also had an invitation from the CEO of KAIT Channel 8 to interview for a position.
No, not the HR head, the CEO of the station.
But that turned out to be a hollow invite because in the end I was offered a part time position that was only twelve hours a week at the Arkansas minimum wage which at the time was $5.15 an hour, ridiculous, so I began searching for ANY work I could get, this being Arkansas, after all.
One acquaintance said I should check out "World Color", a magazine and advertising printing plant in the area.
HA!!! World Color employees had a SEVEN DAY work week ALSO at minimum wage, NO overtime, and if you missed more than three days a year you were fired.

I ended up working for Fielder Brick instead for ten bucks an hour laying brick for about a year or so.

 

[RetiredUSN]

So you don't have any. Got it.

I f I were conversing with a honest liberal then I would be more than glad.

You're not worth the time.