As part of his Labor Day message to workers in the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday re-upped his call for the establishment of a 20% cut to the workweek with no loss in pay—an idea he said is “not radical” given the enormous productivity gains over recent decades that have resulted in massive profits for corporations but scraps for employees and the working class.
“It’s time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay,” Sanders wrote in a Guardian op-ed as he cited a 480% increase in worker productivity since the 40-hour workweek was first established in 1940.
“It’s time,” he continued, “that working families were able to take advantage of the increased productivity that new technologies provide so that they can enjoy more leisure time, family time, educational and cultural opportunities—and less stress.”
So he calls essentially for a 25% raise across the board for everybody. In some fields this doesn’t matter much. Office workers will probably achieve just as much or in some cases perhaps more in 32 hours than in 40 hours. Some other fields, perhaps less so.
If this would happen, it would directly lead to increased unemployment in some fields, and probably and increased inflation that might eat the benefit anyway in the end.
Still, even if I’m a bit skeptical, I’m all for lessening the hours we work, and all for spreading the productivity to more people and not just the top. I just think that the workers will need to take at least part of the hit to make this a realistic goal. Or perhaps robots and AI just need to take over all those jobs where number of hours correlate strongly to the amount of output.
The extra money comes from the management not robbing their employees blind.
You’re getting down voted for expressing legitimate concerns, and nobody is giving reasons why they disagree with you. I thought we left this kind of interaction behind with reddit.
Anyways, any major shift will have downsides, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t viable in the long term.
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That’s a fair point, people would be making the same amount of money anyway and have more room to spend it. It would also decrease the likelihood of overtime due to penalty rates, and potentially increase the job slots as more people would need to work to fill the lost time for some jobs.
I suppose like anything, the best way to do it is gradually.
I have the same kind of reaction, just in the opposite direction.
I’m fine with campaigning for higher salaries, I’m fine with campaigning for shorter work week, but I’m allergic to the combination of both, because it’s usually accompanied by claims that the productivity won’t go down as a result, which is simply delusional and reeks of populism.
Anecdotal evidence: I work in software. We get more work done after time off, and much less work done near the end of a 5day work week, our data shows.
I’m curious how that applies to different fields.
Time is not directly proportional to productivity.
My job, I notice I’m often somewhat off-flow after a vacation or an unexpected day off. But I also drop off significantly after six hours. RN I do work 32 hrs: 3x 6-hr days and 2x 7-hour days, more or less.
I’m an SWE too, and my anecdote is that I certainly can’t do work in 4 days what I’m currently doing in 5 days.
My point wasn’t that 4 days outputs more work than 5 It was that the average output per day decreases with a longer work week, though one or two people we work with manage to be pretty consistent.
Also I think that 4 days of productivity is enough.
Our most effective co workers have had special work hours and agreements. Some worked 4 days on 3 days off, some work 3 hours less a day. They are the ones who consistently pushed out good stuff, were the least distracted, and had the space to occasionally work extra if they felt like it. The only reason they could do that was because they didn’t rely on the 5 day work week to keep themselves afloat.
I wish I could be in that boat but unfortunately my wage means I have to work all 5 days to support myself and family comfortably.
Good, but many do claim exactly this to support the “32 hours with no loss in pay”.
I can believe that, but the causation is often the opposite - they are the most effective, thus they have the biggest leverage to negotiate better conditions for themselves. At least that’s what I’ve seen.
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I have looked up some of those studies in the past and they measured productivity by the company revenue which seems incredibly flawed.
The studies were limited to office workers too. There’s no way a truck driver can cover the same distance 25% faster.
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