Sanders Seeks 32-Hour Workweek with No Loss in Pay

WASHINGTON, March 13 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) today announced that this Thursday he will introduce legislation to establish a standard 32-hour workweek in America with no loss in pay – an important step toward ensuring that workers share in the massive increase in productivity driven by artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology. Sanders is joined on the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act in the Senate by Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) and in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) who introduced companion legislation.

“Moving to a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay is not a radical idea,” said Sen. Sanders. “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.”

This legislation comes ahead of a HELP Committee hearing Chairman Sanders is leading this Thursday on the same issue. Witnesses who are set to testify at the hearing include Shawn Fain, International President of the UAW; Dr. Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology at Boston College and Lead Researcher Four Day Week Global Trials; and Jon Leland, Chief Strategy Officer of Kickstarter and Cofounder of the WorkFour-The National Campaign for the 4-day Workweek.

“While CEOs’ wages continue to increase, our workers are finding themselves doing more, yet earning less than they have in decades,” said Sen. Butler. “The Thirty-Two-Hour Workweek Act would allow hardworking Americans to spend more time with their families while protecting their wages and making sure profits aren’t only going to a select few.”

Rep. Takano said: “As the lead sponsor of the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act in the House of Representatives and a Senior Member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, I am thrilled Senator Sanders is leading the Senate companion to this transformative legislation that will be a win for both workers and workplaces.”

In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) into law establishing the 44-hour workweek through overtime protections – the first broadly applicable federal standard for working hours in the U.S. Just two years later, the FLSA phased-in today’s 40-hour workweek to the American people, which has remained the federal standard ever since. Before these federal labor standards were established, workers – including children – in the early 19th century were on the job more than 70 hours a week, often in horrendous and dangerous working conditions. In the late 1800s, workers conducted major strikes for an 8-hour workday, coining the historic slogan, “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what you will.”

Today, American workers are more than 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. However, millions of Americans are now working longer hours for lower wages. As of 2019, nearly 40 percent of U.S. workers are on the job at least 50 hours a week, and a staggering 18 percent – or 28.5 million workers – are clocking at least 60 hours a week. The average full-time worker in the U.S. now works 42 hours a week – although this estimate does not necessarily account for those working multiple jobs. On top of this, more than 8 million Americans work multiple jobs, with 4.7 million working a second part-time job on top of a full-time job.

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, predicted last year that advancements in technology would lead to a three or three-and-a-half-day workweek in the coming years. Despite these predictions, Americans now work more hours than the people of most other wealthy nations, but are earning less per week than they did 50 years ago, after adjusting for inflation.

The Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act is endorsed by: AFL-CIO, UAW, SEIU, AFA-CWA, UFCW, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), 4 Day Week Global, WorkFour, and the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

“This bill underscores the escalating trend towards diminishing work hours,” said Dr. Dale Whelehan, CEO of 4 Day Week Global. “Increasing evidence firmly supports that reducing working hours yields beneficial outcomes for businesses, individuals, and the broader community. At 4 Day Week Global, we are thrilled to support this endeavour spearheaded by Senator Bernie Sanders, marking further progress towards a future of work that prioritizes sustainable human performance and well-being.”

“We applaud Senator Sanders’ bold initiative that will create a better life for all Americans,” said Vishal Reddy, Executive Director of WorkFour – the national campaign for the 4-day workweek. “100 years ago, critics of the 5-day workweek predicted doom, as they worried that a weekend would set the United States’ economy back. Instead, it helped launch us to the front of the global pack by creating a thriving middle class. Once the 4-day workweek becomes a reality, every American will have nearly six years returned to them over their lifetime. That’s six additional years to spend with their children and families, volunteer in their communities, learn new skills, and take care of their health. The data shows that the 4-day workweek is a triple-dividend policy that benefits everyone – workers, companies, and society. Now is the time to act.”

Read the bill summary, here.
Read the bill text, here.

PREPARED REMARKS: Chairman Bernie Sanders Leads HELP Committee Hearing on a 32-Hour Workweek

WASHINGTON, March 14 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today led the committee in a hearing titled, “Workers Should Benefit from New Technology and Increased Productivity: The Need for a 32-Hour Work Week with No Loss in Pay.”

Sanders’ remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below and can be watch here:

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will come to order.

This morning we are going to talk about an issue that is very rarely discussed in the halls of Congress or in the United States Senate – and that is the need to reduce the standard workweek in America.

In fact, the last time, as we understand it, the Senate held a hearing on this subject was in the year1955. So I think maybe the time is now to renew that discussion.

At that hearing the Senate heard from Walter Reuther, who was the head of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations – one of the great labor leaders in the history of our country.

And this is what Mr. Reuther said: “We fully realize that the potential benefits of automation are great, if properly handled. If only a fraction of what technologists promise for the future is true, within a very few years automation can and should make possible a 4-day workweek … The reduction of the workweek to 35 or 30 hours in the coming decade can be an important shock absorber during the transition to the widespread use of automation. It can both reduce the impact of sharp rises in output and increase the manpower requirements in industry and commerce.”

And, yet, today, nearly 70 years later, despite an explosion as we all know in technology and a massive increase in worker productivity, nothing has changed.

Think about that. Think about the huge transitions we have seen in the economy, but in terms of the workweek nothing has changed.

While we haven’t discussed this issue for a long time in Congress, this is not a new issue.

In 1886, one of the central planks of the trade union movement in America was to establish an eight-hour workday with a simple and straightforward demand: “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what you will.” That was back in 1886.

Americans of that era were sick and tired of working 12-hour days for six or seven days a week with very little time for rest, relaxation or quality time with their families. They went out on strike, they organized, they petitioned the government and business owners and they achieved real results after decades of struggle.

In 1916, President Wilson signed legislation into law to establish an eight-hour workday for railroad workers.

Six years later, the Ford Motor Company became one of the first major employers in America to establish a five-day workweek for autoworkers.

And here is something I believe most people in our country do not know: In 1933, the United States Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation to establish a 30-hour workweek by a vote of 53-30. That was 1933.

While that legislation ultimately failed as a result of intense opposition from corporate America, a few years later President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law and a 40-hour workweek was established in 1940. My friends. In 1940.

Unbelievably, 84 years later, despite massive growth in technology and worker productivity, millions of workers in our country are working longer hours for lower wages.

And I hope people hear this. Because it is not an issue that we talk about enough. Today in America, 28.5 million Americans – 18% of our workforce – now work over 60 hours a week and 40 percent of employees in America now work at least 50 hours a week. We were talking about a 40-hour workweek 80 years ago, and that is what people today, despite the explosion of technology, are working.

The sad reality is, Americans now work more hours than the people of most other wealthy nations. And we’re going to talk about what that means to the lives of ordinary people.

In 2022, employees in the United States, and I hope people hear this, logged 204 more hours a year than employees in Japan, and they’re hardworking people in Japan. 279 more hours than workers in the United Kingdom, and 470 more hours than workers in Germany.

Despite these long hours, the average worker in America makes almost $50 a week less than he or she did 50 years ago, after adjusting for inflation.

Now let that sink in for a moment. Think about all of the extraordinary changes in technology that we seen over the past 50 years – computers, robotics, artificial intelligence – and the huge increase in worker productivity that has been achieved during that time.

In factories and warehouses, robots and sophisticated machinery did not exist then or were only used in primitive forms.

In grocery stores and shops of all kinds, there were no checkout counters that utilized bar codes.

As a result of the extraordinary technological transformations that we have seen in recent years, American workers are now over 400% more productive than they were in the 1940s. Extraordinary. Technology has made working people far more productive.

And what has been the result of all of that productivity increase for working people?

Almost all of the economic gains of that technological transformation have gone straight to the top, while wages for workers have remained stagnant, or even worse.

While CEOs are making nearly 350 times as much as their average employees, workers throughout the country are seeing their family life fall apart as they are forced to spend more and more time at work.

They are missing their kids’ birthday parties and little league baseball games. And just the time they need with their family.

And what stresses them out even further is that – after spending all of this time at work – many of them still are living paycheck to paycheck, and can’t take of their basic needs.

At a moment in history when artificial intelligence and robotics – and I hope we all understand that the jobs that people have today ain’t gonna be there in many cases in 15 years. Our economy is going to be transformed through artificial intelligence and robotics.

The question that we are asking today is a pretty simple question – do we continue the trend that technology only benefits the people on top, or that we demand that these transformational changes also benefits working people? And one of these benefits must be a 32-hour workweek.

And this is not a radical idea.

France, the seventh-largest economy in the world, has a 35-hour work week and is considering reducing it to 32.

Norway and Denmark, their workweek is about 37 hours and Belgium has already adopted a 4-day workweek.

And what we are going to hear today is there are companies all over our country and all over the world that have adopted the four-day workweek and you know what they have found? They found that productivity actually went up. Because workers were able to focus on their work, they were not exhausted, they were happy to go to work.

So the issue that we are talking about today is of enormous importance. Who benefits from the exploding technology? The wealthiest people who are doing phenomenally well or working people who are falling further and further behind?

And with that, let me give the mic over to Senator Cassidy.

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