A new bill introduced in the state assembly would make the official weekly working week 32 hours for companies with 500 or more employees, with huge increases for any work done beyond this limit. Employers will have to pay one and a half years to employees whose hours exceed 32 per week. Work that lasts more than 12 hours a day or seven days a week would be paid double their normal salary. Law-abiding employers will also be barred from cutting workers’ pay because they work less, assembly member Christina Garcia, one of the bill’s sponsors, told the Los Angeles Times. The bill will not cover employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
Job killer?
The proposed law would cover about 2,600 companies in California, or about one-fifth of the state’s workforce, according to the Employment Development Department. The California Chamber of Commerce has called it a “job killer,” saying it would make hiring more expensive and lead to job losses in California. “Labor costs are often one of the highest costs a business can face,” Ashley Hoffman, a Chamber’s advocate, wrote to account author Evan Lowe last week. “[B]”Businesses often operate with small profit margins and… the number of employees you have does not dictate financial success,” he wrote. However, data from other countries show that a four-day workweek can have positive effects, boosting employee productivity and reducing stress. A wide-ranging trial in Iceland last summer concluded that a shorter work week was an “overwhelming success” – 8 out of 10 employees in the country have since moved to work four days a week.
Working more than farmers
In the US, some companies have started experimenting with four-day week. Kickstarter officially launches its shortened work week this month. “[M]”My expectation and desire is that we can achieve the same results or greater results as a result of changing the way we work,” outgoing CEO Aziz Hasan told Time of the change. D’Youville College, a small private school in Buffalo, New York, began a four-day week in January. President Lorrie Clemo said the move would “improve the overall well-being of our employees and the competitiveness of our foundation”. But overall, the shortened work week was relatively rare in a country where workers work longer hours than in most other industrialized countries. The typical American worker today works almost 1,770 hours a year. Among the developed economies, only four nations – Israel, Korea, Russia and Mexico – have consistently more hours than America. Historical records show that 14th-century farmers worked far less than modern Americans. On the contrary, factory workers in the 19th century worked much longer hours. Garcia’s bill is similar to a federal bill introduced in Congress by Mark Takano, a Democrat from California, and passed by the Progressive Group in Congress. “People are spending more time at work, less time with loved ones, their health and well-being is deteriorating and their pay is stagnant. It is time for a change,” Takano said in a statement.
