Gender Gap and Diversity

Bernie Sanders Introduces a 4-Day Workweek Bill

The bill would reduce the standard workweek to 32 hours without loss of pay.


The U.S. might be one step closer to a four-day workweek.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has introduced legislation to establish a four-day workweek in the U.S. If passed, this bill would reduce the standard workweek from 40 to 32 hours over four years. It would also require time-and-a-half overtime pay for workdays longer than eight hours. For workdays longer than 12 hours, overtime pay would be double a worker's regular pay.

Crucially, the bill would also protect workers' pay and benefits with the reduced workweek. Its proponents call it "an important step toward ensuring that workers share in the massive increase in productivity driven by artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology," according to a press release announcing the bill.

Senator Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) joined Sanders in introducing the bill in the Senate, while Representative Mark Takano (D-Calif.) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives. The bill's endorsers include unions such as the United Auto Workers and advocacy organizations like 4 Day Week Global, which conducts four-day workweek pilot programs around the world.

Those programs have produced some noteworthy results: 89 percent of organizations in a U.K. trial have kept the policy even a year later. In another, year-long trial tracking companies in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Ireland, 4 Day Week Global found that participants were more efficient the longer they instituted the four-day workweek.

"What we are finding is that consistent narrative that this is good for people and good for business," Dale Whelehan, CEO of 4 Day Week Global, previously told Inc.

And yet, hurdles remain. The new legislation faces an uphill battle, challenging a more than 80-year-old precedent. Despite pushes for pilot programs in states like Maryland and Massachusetts, no comprehensive four-day workweek program has taken effect. For some companies, implementation of the four-day model could pose a challenge with scheduling, operations, and other concerns.

But with this new bill, Sanders argues that it's high time for a change.

"The question that we're asking today is a pretty simple question," Sanders said in a hearing this morning. "Do we continue the trend that technology only benefits the people on top? Or do we demand that these transformational changes benefit working people?"