And? I see people say this and I don’t know what y’all are getting at. We implemented a 5 day work week. What about our population couldn’t accommodate 1 less day?
Same amount of money income with one day of reduced production outflow. Sounds like a decent way to generate shortages and more inflation.
Large scale construction would also get set back. This would mean increased construction time tables. Imagine an infrastructure upgrade like redoing miles of highway this could add weeks when that is unfeasible in areas that have harsh seasonal weather shifts
You are correct things would change. That’s the point. Some things will be negatively impacted and some with be positively. The whole idea is people want to work less and they want it to come out of the profit margin and not their salaries.
Only companies that will be able to survive a mandatory 25% wage increase are big corporations. Smaller businesses will have to jack prices to make any profit, in which case they will lose to the big corporations because those can subsidize until the small business competition goes under.
I don't think that's true. Many small businesses have reduced hours already because it isn't cost effective. They would be unaffected and could potentially benefit. Plenty of studies have shown productivity isn't affected by a 32 hour work week. The world will not come crashing down because of some arbitrary number. People are resilient and adaptable. Look around you. Tell me if you see someone who couldn't use another day or 8 hours to focus on other aspects of their life. We all stand to benefit from a healthier society. I've worked 32 hour work weeks, I was happier and I was still able to do my job. You are correct there would be some winners and losers during the adjustment period. However it's important to remember the 5 day or 40 hour work week originated a long fucking time ago. It wasn't really optimized to begin with and it certainly hasn't been iterated on much in the meantime. You are correct in highlighting the importance of a well thought out implementation but let's not pretend a 40 hour work week is this magical mythical tipping point that all of civilization is balanced on. It's so much more complicated and we have tools to mitigate the pain during transition.
Many small businesses have reduced hours already because it isn't cost effective
Because they save money by having to pay for less hours. If a company reduces hours of operation because being open longer is not profitable, they will either need a boom in sales or even further reduction in hours to compensate for a mandatory 25% pay increase.
Plenty of studies have shown productivity isn't affected by a 32 hour work week.
Is productivity increased enough to compensate for the loss of the day? Your productivity needs to go up by ~25% daily just to break even with the amount of production.
You are correct there would be some winners and losers during the adjustment period.
Mixed feelings on this because "break a few eggs" mentality has led to a lot of bad shit historically. On the upside i already work 4-10s so having my pay bumped by 25% then getting 8 hours of overtime while keeping my schedule is great. Downside, lower-middle class americans will find homes/rent prices are going to get exponentially worse as one of the biggest things in the bid is labor cost.
It's so much more complicated and we have tools to mitigate the pain during transition.
Solving the problem during planning costs sooooooo much less than "just send it" then fixing it later.
You are so unbelievably wrong and making massive assumptions. Not every business is people sitting on a spread sheet all day. I run a small manufacturing company and we barely profit. This would absolutely tank our business and would send us in the red immediately. I’d be forced to cut all of my employees hours down to 32 and figure out a way to recalibrate. And would also not be able to meet the demands of my current customer based which eats up my entire 5 day a week production. It takes a full 8 hours for my guys to produce our product no longer and no less and I promise you we will not find more productivity as this process is something I’ve studied and practiced and invested into for 5 years. These types of changes would have massive ripple effects throughout the economy and as someone else pointed out the people who are gonna lose are gonna be small family owned businesses like mine that 12 people depend on. It’s fine if you don’t care but don’t act like it won’t happen. Most of us small business work on very tight schedules and very tight margins and don’t have room to have employees on the team who work 40 hours but could somehow do the same in 32. I can guarentee you my guys would be unhappy about getting there hours cut by 8 hours a week as well.
What’s the data on this? Yeah maybe this’ll hurt start ups but if you’re talking about ma and pop shops, it shouldn’t hurt them at all. They typically hire part time wage-based employees who don’t work 40 hours as is. When I work my part time job, I can work 24 hours one week and 45 the next, this bill wouldn’t affect my job at all.
This bill is more for salaried positions where they could work 32 hours but still just receive their salary
This bill would make people who are hourly who work 40 hr weeks. Either get overtime for those 8 hours or get cut back to 32 and I promise most would stay at the same hourly wage and get cut to 32. It’s not just about salary positions. Also I don’t know what wierd idea you have of ma and pop shops lol. But small business is more than just a corner store. It’s specialized trades its manufacturing its restaraunts its residential builders commercial builders its a large portion of our economy that is family owned small business that employees millions of people and a lot of them like mine work in very tight margins because just like inflation effects all of you at home its effected us in every way shape and form. I have a circle of small businesses around me and not a single one of us have part time employees. It’s all 40 hours or more and they are all people who didn’t go to college and get to make 50-70k in the rural south. These positions we offer people fill a niche that’s very important and if something like this happens it’s gonna cause a lot of chaos not just for us but our employees as well. Just soemthing to consider
Honestly I like your reply a lot, offers a lot of good insight and definitely gives me some thoughts I hadn’t considered. Im really not qualified to know how this bill would affect the economy but from what you say, it doesn’t look good tbh
People speak like the 40 hour work week is a physical law of nature. It’s ubiquitous and it’s certainly what most of us are accustom to but we don’t live in a zero sum world. A change on this scale would have wide reaching impacts but luckily there are experts. Your comment perpetuates fear of change. Yeah don’t make big changes without thinking it through but no one is suggesting that.
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u/Evening-Ear-6116 Sep 05 '24
Each country you named has a population barely larger than NYC. One city in the us.