Bernie Sanders Champions 32-Hour Work Week With No Loss in Pay ( www.commondreams.org )

As part of his Labor Day message to workers in the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday re-upped his call for the establishment of a 20% cut to the workweek with no loss in pay—an idea he said is “not radical” given the enormous productivity gains over recent decades that have resulted in massive profits for corporations but scraps for employees and the working class.

“It’s time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay,” Sanders wrote in a Guardian op-ed as he cited a 480% increase in worker productivity since the 40-hour workweek was first established in 1940.

“It’s time,” he continued, “that working families were able to take advantage of the increased productivity that new technologies provide so that they can enjoy more leisure time, family time, educational and cultural opportunities—and less stress.”

jasondj ,

For the sake of comparison…

1940 median US male salary was $956. Women earned about 62¢ on the dollar to men.

Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $21,800.

Median US income (overall) in 2023 is $42,800.

You mean to tell me productivity has gone up 4.8x, and I don’t even see 2x the increase in salary.

Put otherwise, if my hours are worth nearly 5x to you, why aren’t they even worth 2x to me?

Piye ,

This only works if your pay doesn’t get reduced, which it always does. Obama cut full-time and suddenly everyone had to get two jobs to pay rent

Matt_Shatt ,

I mean, cool, but nothing will happen because one old guy says this.

pizza-bagel ,

There have been studies showing no loss in productivity too. But rich people want to fuck us over for no reason 🤷‍♀️

crazyminner ,
@crazyminner@sh.itjust.works avatar

There is a reason. If our lives get too easy, that gives us time to enact our free will and choose to do things they don’t want.

Instead they keep us focused on paying the next bill.

More time to work on your community means that people have less food bills and health bills and rent. If we help eachother out were not helping them.

WalrusDragonOnABike ,

Someone has to be an early proponent of it. Its not we could go from no congresspersons says such to suddenly one minute all of them decide to announce they support it simultaneously.

phillaholic ,

It doesn’t mean much coming from Bernie. He’s all talk. He says these things but he rarely has thought out plans on them.

WalrusDragonOnABike ,

What's he supposed to do? Blackmail, threaten, or kill most of congress? Until he has plans for those, having bills written won't do much but waste time that he could be better using talking about the ideas.

Zoboomafoo ,
@Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world avatar

He’s never tried being friendly with his coworkers, maybe he should give that a go

phillaholic ,

I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic. A group of 100 having to do what 1 person says is not a democracy. The vibes on this subject are uncomfortably authoritarian. We’re talking about fundamental level stuff here. If you’re in a group of friends deciding where to go to dinner, people can vote and compromise on where they want to go, or you can have one person have total control and decide for everyone. The latter isn’t how the US should be run.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

He proposes bills all the time. It’s not his fault the rest of the corrupt senate won’t give them a fair hearing.

phillaholic ,

Bills themselves aren’t well thought out plans. He needs to work with his peers to get legislation passed, not just write up his ideals and act like everyone will fall in line. That’s not how anything works.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

When his peers are all owned by corporations, how can he?

phillaholic ,

If the “reform” in work reform is a serious attempt and not just a circle jerk comments like these are not productive.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

And yet, it’s true. Name one other senator that hasn’t been bought.

phillaholic ,

Give me a clear definition of “been bought.”

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Do you really not know how lobbying works?

dangblingus ,

How do you think politics works? It’s all talk. Then they vote on a bill.

phillaholic ,

Groups of elected representatives are put into committees that workshop ideas / bills and gauge interest. In order to pass committee and receive broad support, riders are typically added to allow other representatives to get something for their constituents. Compromises are made, not everyone gets everything they want, and we move forward.

Senators don’t make proclamations with no plans and immediately get bills passed.

Zaktor ,

Seriously. People must think the $15 min wage and student debt forgiveness just sprung from nothingness to have support across the party. These things start with progressives making the case and saying “this is possible”.

z3rOR0ne ,
@z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml avatar

By that logic, nothing will happen because one person ever said anything.

dangblingus ,

You’re underestimating how influential Bernie is. He’ll never be POTUS, but he got into people’s heads in a big way.

unfreeradical ,
@unfreeradical@lemmy.world avatar

No.

You have to join a union or form a union.

If your workplace is already organized, then build further strength through solidarity, help other workers around you, and at every turn find ways to erode the power of the bosses.

Deftdrummer ,

Oh wahhhh, you can’t have risky sex and abort babies now. So fucking sad for your plight.

Kirkkh ,

Sounds great. He should do something about it.

unfreeradical , (edited )
@unfreeradical@lemmy.world avatar

He can’t, but workers can.

Our fate rises or falls by our capacity to join in solidarity.

JohnDClay ,

Even 32 hours a week with a proportional decrease in pay would be a huge improvement.

Powerpoint ,

You shouldn’t have to take a cut in pay for this. Productivity has increased and the benefits of the productivity increase has only gone to the ultra wealthy.

JohnDClay ,

But negotiating only for higher wages per hour and lower hours as a package deal could make it harder to get either. It probably depends employer to employer, but doing both at the same time would be hard to make them do.

some_guy ,

Which is why we need to build class solidarity, unions, and strike. A hundred years ago, people fought for everything they could get. They didn’t say “safe working conditions or a 40h work week.” They said, “we want all we can get.”

treefrog ,

A lot of people are struggling with inflation already. A 20% pay cut is not an improvement.

JohnDClay ,

Yeah not for everyone. I’m thinking higher paying areas like technology and programming where pay is high but people are getting really burned out.

treefrog ,

Yeah, I can see in those specific situations. Cost of living tends to be high in areas with a lot of technology jobs though so I don’t know.

I’m not those people so I can’t speak for them.

curiousaur ,

I’m a programmer, and it’s very different from hourly work. Realistically, any programmer is coding for like 1-2 hours a day. There are meetings so we understand the problem we have to solve, and a lot of time thinking through the problems and architecture solutions. We’re not sitting there typing for 8 hours a day, or at least those are the ones getting burned out. Realistically I’m working like 30 hours a week already, with only 10 hours being real coding, the rest being talking, researching, learning, and pondering. Maybe I’m lucky I work somewhere that that stuff isn’t seen as slacking.

Nemo ,

Ugh. I once did some independent programming and the guy insisted I do it in front of him because it involved his proprietary data. So much griping about the time I spent looking at documentation or referring to coding assistance sites like Stack Overflow. I quit on day two.

McScience ,

Honestly as a mid-career IT person, I’d take a 30-40% cut for that extra day without a second of hesitation.

AttackPanda ,

Why does it feel like it’s only ever Bernie Sanders that is pushing for life improvements.

deadtom ,

Cause he's one of the few that actually give a shit. Its why the DNC did everything in their power to scuttle his primary run. Can't have a president that actually wants to help the common American cause then the corporate overlords might lose their stranglehold on them.

refurbishedrefurbisher ,

Any kind of socialism (even relatively-speaking weak social democrats like Bernie) is severely underrepresented in US politics due to the influence of private money/capital in the government and in elections. The two party system/first past the post voting doesn’t help matters either.

SCB ,

Any kind of socialism (even relatively-speaking weak social democrats like Bernie)

This move is not socialism and calling it socialism makes it harder to pass on America.

If you’re in a gun fight, don’t start tossing your opponent ammunition.

Saneless ,

Thank you

We’ve already proven that idiots don’t understand the words they parrot, so attaching it to one they hate is just stupid.

Same thing with shit like vaccines and autism. Don’t even put the two in the same sentence. It’s not even worth legitimizing the bullshit the handlers put out there

Shardikprime ,

Calling them idiots while searching for their support does wonders however

Saneless ,

Oh I’m sure that’s what keeps them from taking a pro-american stance, the name calling

phillaholic ,

Because he doesn’t have to accomplish anything. Does he have a plan for this? Has he done any due diligence on transition? Has he studied the impact on small business vs large business? It’s easy to tell people what they want to hear. It’s harder to implement. Studies have shown it working in other countries, but that’s nowhere near enough to just make it happen in the US.

ccunix ,

Why does it feel like it’s only ever Bernie Sanders that is pushing to bring the US inline with Europe?

GoodEye8 ,

As someone from Europe I would absolutely love a 32 hour work week without any pay cut. In my previous company I bargained myself a 32 hour work week with a pay cut and it was excellent, it felt like I had so much free time to do other things.

treefrog ,

Because 95% of them are on the corporate dime.

EyeYamDatEyeYam ,

Yeah. We all want something for nothing. Fortunately, there are still enough adults in the U.S. who recognize that just doesn’t work in the real world.

gibmiser ,

Shut the fuck up. We can make the world a better place if we want to. We are just going to have to drag you and the rest of the simps for the rich kicking and screaming. And you will benefit from our efforts. And just because you will freeload off of us improving the world doesn’t stop me from wanting to do it.

We have enough food and goods to go around if we would just start voting for people who actually believe we can do it. We were so close with Bernie…

triclops6 ,

Lick that boot bud

Neflubaguzzi ,

Suck off your CEO while you’re at it!

snausagesinablanket ,
@snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world avatar

I think he is taking too big of a chunk off. If this were to be phased in with 4-day work weeks at 10 hours a day with 2 breaks could be a starting point. Companies get the same amount of production hours and save 20% on building costs, energy, etc.

WheeGeetheCat ,
@WheeGeetheCat@sh.itjust.works avatar

He’s right

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