A bill challenging the standardized five-day/40-hour workweek has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives.
California Representative Mark Takano’s bill proposes making a four-day workweek a federal law. The mandate would create “a significant change which will increase the happiness of humankind,” per CNBC.
In June 2021, the UK ran a trial bringing the four-day workweek to the forefront. In the study, over 3,300 employees from 70 companies worked on a four-day/32-hour schedule while still receiving 100 percent of their pay. In the results, the workers continued the same productivity levels compared to 40-hour workweeks. After the study, 90 percent preferred the new model, per CNN. Multiple British companies have established Takano’s proposed framework in their businesses.
Commercial Workers Union, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Orgs, 4 Day Week Global, Service Employees International Union, and United Food co-signed the congressman’s new business layout, endorsing the bill.
On March 1, Rep. Takano said in a statement, “Workers across the nation are collectively reimagining their relationship to labor—and our laws need to follow suit.”
He continued, “We have before us the opportunity to make common sense changes to work standards passed down from a different era. The Thirty-Two-Hour Workweek Act would improve the quality of life of workers, meeting the demand for a more truncated workweek that allows room to live, play, and enjoy life more fully outside of work.”
Takano took to his Twitter to spread the message. “The data is in & the time is now to modernize work culture for the better. I’m reintroducing the 32-Hour Workweek Act to allow workers to begin reclaiming their time, and their lives, with no loss of pay,” he wrote.
The U.S. official has a track record of creating change, including becoming the first openly gay person of color elected to Congress.