Which will be struck down almost unanimously because the US government is a cesspool of liches and ghouls.

Sanders also pointed to other countries that have already made the move toward shortening workweeks. France has a 35-hour workweek and is considering moving to a 32-hour workweek, and Norway and Denmark have workweeks of about 37 hours.

The problem with this comparison is that those countries have socialized healthcare, so healthcare expenditures come from the tax pool. In the U.S., healthcare is privatized so if workers don't get burnout, injuries, diseases from stress etc. that translates to loss of revenue in the healthcare sector (but not for the companies that don't have to pay workers if they're out sick), and many of the decision makers in the U.S. are invested in the healthcare industry so there's an obvious conflict of interest there when it comes to anything that benefits the health and well being of Americans. And the numbers are pretty big when you consider how much more expensive healthcare is in the U.S. than in those above mentioned countries.

Great idea, love it as a former factory worker myself. Hope it gets traction but let's be real, it has a Republican Christian chance of getting into heaven to get enacted into law at least for now.

As a white collar worker, of love to see a bill that just sees white collar workers just get paid their equivalent hourly wage when we go over 40. Fucking crunch due to unrealistic manager bullshit schedules.

I appreciate Bernie and what he stands for. But, unlike pretty much every other developed country on earth, the US, aka the no-vacation nation, doesn't even have universally available PTO. I'd start there.

I do want this change, but this system is built off exploitation look at the child labor laws being rolled back.

My boss just told us all how this will "remove our lunch and break times and take away all holidays" trying to scare us. Leeches, all of them.

Let's assess the effects this change could cause on real numbers.

Note: This is a duplicate of a part of a comment I've written here above as a response, but I don't want it to be buried. Hope that's fine

I'll take Nutrien's 2023 audited financial statement as an example. (Numbers in brackets are what's deducted to get what's not in brackets)

• Sales - 29056
• Freight, transportation, distribution - (974)
• Cost of goods sold - (19608)
• EBIT - 8474
• Interest - (w/e)
• EBT - 1952
• Taxes - (670)
• Net earning - 1282

Out of cost of goods sold (2858) is cost of labour, let's also add (626) from general administrative expenses, and just say it's all wages.

• Effective tax rate - 670/1952*100% = 34,3% (wow, that's a lot for where I live, also ignoring mining tax for simplicity)

Let's see what happens to our efficiency if the changes take effect.

All of costs can be divided into Fixed and Variable ones. Labour, in this case, is Variable because we can manipulate it by employing more staff to compensate for reduction in working hours and keep the sales at the same rate. (Contract workers are usually Fixed Cost, but it's all relative, as no Fixed Cost is ever truly fixed.)

Going from 40 => 32, we have a 20% reduction in working hours. Mind you, this doesn't mean there will be a 20% hit to productivity. It may be more, it may be less (most likely less), for simplicity let's say it's 20%. So, we need 20% more workers to compensate. (2858+626)*120%=4180.8

• New EBT = 1952 + 2858 + 626 - 4180.8 = 1255.2
• New net profit = 1255.2*(1-34.3%) = 824.7. Mind you, the effective tax rate will probably be lower if employment affects deductibles and/or grants tax privileges.

So, our net profit margin went from 1282/29056 = 4.4% to 2.8%. Looks bad at first glance, but it's also a bad year. A year prior net profit margin was at whopping 20.3%, so a decrease from 4.4% to 2.8% would be nothing in comparison.

Will it result in increased prices? Yes, but it will also lead to economic growth, because more free time = people spend more money = companies earn more = companies grow faster, but so does inflation. If they can manage the inflation, I don't see why this couldn't be possible.

We don't deserve Bernie 🥺

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday introduced a bill to establish a standard four-day workweek in the United States without any reduction in pay.

A press release described the legislation as “an important step toward ensuring that workers share in the massive increase in productivity driven by artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology.”

“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.

“While CEOs’ wages continue to increase, our workers are finding themselves doing more, yet earning less than they have in decades,” Butler wrote in a statement.

“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.”

In the announcement, Sanders cited several pilot programs and studies that show productivity improving with a four-day workweek.

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