The Time Has Come For A 32-Hour Workweek–With No Loss In Pay

By Senator Bernie Sanders Photos: YouTube Screenshots Although it is rarely discussed in the media, the Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation to establish a 30-hour workweek in 1933. While that legislation ultimately failed because of intense opposition from corporate America, a few years later President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law and a 40-hour workweek was established in 1940. Unbelievably, 84 years later, despite massive growth in technology and worker productivity, nothing has changed. Today, American workers are more than 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, despite this fact, millions of our people are working longer hours for lower wages. In fact, 28.5 million Americans now work over 60 hours a week and more than half of full-time employees work more than 40 hours a week. The sad reality is, Americans work more hours than the people of most other wealthy nations. In 2022, U.S. workers logged 204 more hours a year than employees in Japan; 279 more hours than those in the United Kingdom; and 470 more hours than those in Germany. Despite these long hours, the average worker in America makes almost $50 a week less than he...