Sen. Bernie Sanders pushes for 32-hour workweek

CNNWire
Friday, March 15, 2024
Sen. Bernie Sanders pushes for 32-hour workweek
Sen. Bernie Sanders pushes for 32-hour workweekThe senior senator from Vermont's proposal seeks to reduce the standard workweek over a four-year period.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced a 32-hour workweek bill in the U.S. with no loss of pay for workers.

Sanders says his bill to establish a four-day workweek is not a radical idea and would lead to a better quality of life for millions of Americans.

"One of the issues that we have got to talk about is stress in this country," Sanders said during a meeting of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. "The fact that so many people are going to work exhausted, physically and mentally, and the fact that we have not changed the Fair Labor Standards Act. This was in 1940 -- we came up with a 40-hour work week -- 1940.

"Who is going to deny that the economy has not fundamentally and radically changed over that period of time?" Sanders said. "So, to suggest that we have to maintain what we put in place 84 years ago does not make a lot of sense to me."

Sanders is joined on the Thirty-Two Hour Work Week Act in the Senate by California Sen Laphonza Butler and in the House of Representatives by California Rep. Mark Takano.