Count Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders among the growing chorus of Americans who want a shorter work week. He made that plea during a recent Senate hearing.
“The question that we are asking today is a pretty simple question. Do we continue the trend that technology only benefits the people on top or do we demand that these transformational changes benefit working people and one of the benefits must be a lower work week, 32-hour work week,” said Sanders.
And he has a point. The workweek is a construct that has taken many shapes over the centuries. But for the mass of Americans our version was created in 1940, one that’s woefully out of date.
According to the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development Americans work more than most of the first world. 470 more hours per year than people in Germany, 300 hours more than people in France, 279 hours more than people in the UK, 204 hours more than people in Japan, and 125 hours more than people in Canada.
Sanders says we’re being overworked and there are consequences for that.
“But one of the issues that we have got to talk about is stress in this country. 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.” He continued. “This was in 1940. We came up with a 40-hour workweek 1940. Who's going to deny that the economy has not fundamentally and radically changed over that period of time?”
What do you think? What is a fair amount of work hours?
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