Senate Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) questions witnesses with ranking member Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) during a hearing about working hours in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on March 14, 2024 in Washington, DC.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders and Senate Democrats cited advances in artificial intelligence and automation Thursday in their argument for a bill that would mandate a 32-hour federal workweek.
“Despite massive growth in technology and worker productivity, millions of workers in our country are working longer hours for low wages,” Sanders said after gaveling open a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
“The sad reality is Americans now work more hours than the people of any other wealthy nation,” the committee chair and Vermont independent said later.
The bill introduced by Sanders and Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., would reduce the standard workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours over a four-year period.
Employers would have to pay overtime compensation to nonexempt employees of 1.5 times the hourly rate for every hour worked past eight hours in a single day, and two times the hourly rate for every hour worked past 12 hours.
The bill also would guarantee that total weekly wages would not be cut as a result of the reduction in total hours worked.
Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., has introduced a similar bill in the House of Representatives.
The bills come months after business leaders such as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates predicted that people could within decades work as little as three days a week due to innovations in AI and automation.
Sanders and Democrats at Thursday’s hearing said that reducing the workweek would allow people to spend more time with family and on hobbies.
“A lot of people find value in work and I’m glad that they do, but a lot of people find more value by the institutions and the…
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