Mandated 4-Day Work Week May Become a Reality for Idaho in 2022

HUGE news for the working class was announced today!

The Congressional Progressive Caucus formally endorsed the “32-Hour Workweek Act” that was first introduced in July.

United States Representative Mark Takano of California created this bill to prioritize productivity, fair pay, and improved quality of life for workers across the country.

So what does this mean in lamens terms? 

Well, currently it is a law that if an individual employee works more than 40 hours in a week, their employer must pay them time-and-a-half a.k.a. “Overtime Pay”. 

This new bill would make it so if an individual works more than 32 hours in a week (approx. 8 hours for 4 days), the employer would have to pay the employee “Overtime Pay” for any additional hours worked past 32 hours in one week.

Where did this idea come from?

After a nearly two-year-long pandemic that is still ongoing, we were all forced to explore remote or work-from-home options. This inspired a deep look into the American worker, their rights, and their wages which have remained stagnant over decades while inflation and cost of living have skyrocketed. 

We Americans pride ourselves on a higher quality of life, but we haven’t had any push or legislative change for the American working class for many decades.

What politicians are saying about the 4-day-work-week

According to this article by The Hill, Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal said “It is past time that we put people and communities over corporations and their profits - finally prioritizing the health, wellbeing, and basic human dignity of the working class rather than their employers’ bottom line.” 

Jayapal continued by saying “The 32-hour workweek would go a long way toward finally righting that balance.”