Following the radical changes to many Americans’ work routines during the COVID-19 pandemic, some progressives are reinvigorating a push to an even more radical move: a shorter workweek.
The current push for a reduced workweek is being spearheaded by Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), who introduced the 32-Hour Workweek Act in 2021. The bill would reduce the average workweek by lowering the 40-hour threshold for overtime compensation for nonexempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Thus, any time worked over 32 hours in a week would be subject to overtime compensation.
Progressives say the move would improve work-life balance and potentially increase employment opportunities. “At a time when the nature of work is rapidly changing, it’s incumbent upon us to explore all possible means of ensuring our modern business model prioritizes productivity, fair pay, and an improved quality of life for workers,” Takano said in a statement. “I am introducing this legislation to reduce the standard workweek to 32 hours because — now more than ever — people continue to work longer hours while their pay remains stagnant. We cannot continue to accept this as our reality.”
Takano also pointed to research from other countries that have experimented with shorter workweeks. It suggests that fewer hours worked per week leads to more productive employees and improved well-being. Proponents of the shorter workweek often point to a study in Iceland that found that workers who could shorten their workweeks to 35 or 36 hours saw no drop in productivity. Some even improved their productivity. Workers also reported less stress and burnout and a better work-life balance.
“Participating workers took on fewer hours and enjoyed greater well-being, improved work-life balance and a better cooperative spirit in the workplace — all while maintaining existing standards of performance and productivity,” according to the study conducted by the Association for Democracy and Sustainability and the think tank Autonomy. According to the study, 86% of Iceland’s working population was on a contract to work shorter hours currently or in the future.
“It is past time that we put people and communities over corporations and their profits — finally prioritizing the health, well-being, and basic human dignity of the working class rather than their employers’ bottom line,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the Congressional Progressive Caucus chairwoman, said in a statement. “The 32-hour workweek would go a long way toward finally righting that balance.”
Labor unions have also backed the bill. The AFLCIO has also touted the potential for a shorter workweek to address unemployment levels, saying that a change would spread more work hours to more people and allow more people to work even as technology makes some jobs more efficient. Opponents of the proposal argue that the move could increase involuntary part-time work.
They point to the Affordable Care Act, which mandated that employers provide health insurance for those working more than 30 hours a week and resulted in some employers cutting employee hours. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) also argued that legally reducing the minimum threshold for overtime pay places a burden on employers. The “one-size-fits-all approach” would require “large organizations to pay overtime for any work in excess of 32 hours without reducing an employee’s regular rate of pay,” Emily M. Dickens, SHRM’s chief of staff, head of government affairs and corporate secretary, said in a statement.
There are also those who point out that an across-the-board change to the 40-hour workweek could unintentionally penalize low-wage workers, many of whom may choose to work more hours for the extra income. “That’s what bothers me most about this discussion,” Dan Hamermesh, a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Atlantic in 2015. “It’s very much a bunch of well-to-do folks telling others how much they should work.”
While the idea for a shorter workweek is not new, its current popularity is largely due to the effects of the pandemic, which Takano said makes the environment around the debate “different” and possibly more amenable to this type of change. Takano’s bill has yet to be considered by the House, however, and a similar bill in California stalled in the state legislature earlier this year, thus indicating that a possible shift to a shorter workweek in the U.S. may not be swift.
For more background, see the April 2021 issue of Congressional Digest on “Federal Minimum Wage.”
