With the development of AI technology and workers’ pursuit of better quality of life, a new “working hours revolution” concerning the vital interests of tens of millions of workers has emerged in the American political arena. Federal Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Mark Takano reintroduced the “32-Hour Work Week Act” earlier this month. At the same time, the New York State Assembly is simultaneously promoting multiple related proposals in an attempt to break the long-standing traditional system of the 40-hour workweek deeply rooted in American society.
According to the latest federal bill proposed by Sanders and Takano, the core aim is to gradually reduce the standard working hours from the current 40 hours to 32 hours without compromising workers’ economic income.
To avoid causing sudden impacts on business operations, the bill plans for a phased transition. After the bill is passed, the threshold for overtime pay will be initially reduced to 38 hours in the first year, then to 36 hours in the second year, 34 hours in the third year, and finally officially implemented as 32 hours in the fourth year.
The bill has also revised regulations on daily overtime pay – employees working over 8 hours a day will be entitled to 1.5 times their salary for the excess hours, and if they work over 12 hours in a day, employers will have to pay 2 times their regular salary for the additional hours.
In order to prevent employers from using “shortened work hours” as a reason to indirectly cut wages, the bill expressly stipulates that employers cannot reduce employees’ existing weekly total wages or related benefits due to changes in the work hour system.
Sanders stated that with the surge in productivity due to technological advancements in businesses, the benefits of this development should not be exclusively enjoyed by corporate executives, and workers should have more time to spend with their families and rest.
While federal legislation is being pushed forward, the New York State Assembly is taking the lead nationwide by proposing dual-track initiatives for the state’s workforce:
1. Amend standard working hours: State Senator Jessica Ramos has introduced a bill aiming to directly reduce New York State’s statutory workweek standard to 32 hours.
2. Tax Deduction Pilot Program: The State Assembly has members proposing the establishment of a “Four-Day Workweek Pilot Program.” This program intends to provide tax deductions to businesses, encouraging private sector employers to experiment with shortened work hours without cutting employee wages or benefits, to collect substantial data on the real impact on business operations and employee productivity.
Currently, the relevant proposals in New York State are still in the review stage of the State Senate and State Assembly committees and have not yet entered the voting process.
What is now considered the norm of a “two-day weekend, 40-hour workweek” was not always the case, but rather a product established nearly a century ago by labor movements and industrial giants.
During the early stages of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, American workers were working 12 to 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, leading to exhausted minds and bodies and frequent workplace accidents.
In 1926, Henry Ford, at his Ford Motor Company, was the first to reduce the workweek from 48 hours to 40 hours without decreasing wages. Ford discovered that rested workers were more productive and had leisure time and purchasing power, which in turn propelled the growth of the automobile and consumer markets.
After the impact of the Great Depression, the U.S. Congress passed the historic Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, officially setting the standard workweek at 44 hours, further reduced to 40 hours in 1940, mandating overtime pay for excess work hours. This law laid the basic framework for modern American and global labor systems.
This proposal to reshape the century-old work hour structure has sparked intense debates in the political and business sectors.
Labor unions and supporters of the bill point out that various international experiments, such as the four-day workweek trials in the UK and Iceland, have shown that reducing work hours significantly decreases employee fatigue, improves mental and physical health, and does not lead to a decrease in overall business productivity but rather enhances it when employees are focused.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and some small business owners, however, have expressed strong concerns. They argue that for industries highly dependent on scheduling and manpower such as food services, retail, healthcare, and logistics, mandatory reductions in work hours will force businesses to hire more staff to fill shifts, leading to significantly increased operational costs. Ultimately, this may trigger a new round of price increases for goods and services, passing the burden onto consumers.