With millions of Americans changing jobs, a California politician wants to use the Great Reset to create a better work-life balance for workers.
Assembly member Christina Garcia is sponsoring a bill to make the state’s official 32-hour work week for companies with 500 or more employees. Any work done after this break will come with a significant increase: employers will have to pay time and a half to workers whose hours exceed 32 per week. And work that lasts more than 12 hours a day or seven days a week will be paid double the normal salary.
Employers subject to the law, which will apply to 20% of the California workforce, will also be banned from cutting people’s pay if they work less than their standard work week, Garcia told CBS News. The bill will not apply to workers who are represented by a trade union and are covered by a collective agreement.
“After two years of pandemic, more than 47 million workers have quit their jobs in search of better opportunities,” Garcia said. “They send a clear message that they want a better work-life balance – they want better emotional and mental health, and that’s part of that discussion.
California’s economy is the fifth largest in the world and the largest in the United States, making it a leader in many aspects of workplace culture.
A killer at work?
The proposed law will cover about 2,600 companies in California, according to the Department of Employment Development.
The California Chamber of Commerce called him a “job killer,” saying it would make hiring more expensive and lead to a drop in jobs in California.
“Labor costs are often one of the highest costs a business faces,” wrote Ashley Hoffman, a political advocate in the House, to bill co-sponsor Evan Lowe last week.
“[B]companies often operate with low profit margins, and the number of employees you have does not dictate financial success, ”she wrote.
Data from other countries show that a four-day work week can have positive effects by increasing employee productivity while reducing stress. Extensive experience in Iceland last summer concluded that the shorter work week was an “incredible success” – since then, 8 out of 10 employees in the country have switched to work four days a week. Other countries, including Scotland, Spain and even some workaholic Japan, have tested shorter working weeks.
Garcia argues that large companies that have had their most lucrative quarters since the 1950s can afford to pay more to workers.
“We want to see them share some of this better life with their employees,” she told CBS News.
Working more than peasants
In the United States, a handful of companies began experimenting with a four-day week. Kickstarter officially kicks off its shortened work week this month. “[M]Your expectation and my desire is to be able to achieve the same results or greater results as a result of changing the way we work, “his outgoing CEO Aziz Hassan told Time of the Change.
D’Youville College, a small private school in Buffalo, New York, began testing a four-day week in January. President Lori Clemo said the move “will improve the overall well-being of our staff and the competitiveness of our institution”.
But in general, reduced working weeks are relatively rare in a nation where workers work longer than in most other industrialized countries.
The typical American worker today works nearly 1,770 hours a year. Among developed economies, only four nations – Israel, Korea, Russia and Mexico – consistently spend more hours than America. Historical records show that 14th-century peasants worked far less than modern Americans; in contrast, factory workers in the 19th century worked significantly longer.
Garcia’s bill is similar to a federal bill introduced in Congress by Mark Takano, a California Democrat, and approved by the Progressive Assembly.
“People spend more time at work, less time with relatives, their health and well-being deteriorate, and their pay remains stagnant. It is time for a change, “Takano said in a statement.
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