What would you do with a three-day weekend...every week?
I'd run more, read more, watch the long list of films I've been wanting to catch (I'm finally seeing Oppenheimer this weekend) and generally probably be more well-rested than I am now.
Today, the question is more than a hypothetical one: as my colleague Inae Oh reports, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) unveiled a bill aiming to establish a four-day workweek over the next four years.
As Inae points out, a four-day workweek enjoys overwhelming public support and has been shown to improve job satisfaction. But not everyone approves of it. As Inae writes:
Yet despite decades of efforts and a pandemic that supercharged workers’ consciousness to value their time, the shortened workweek remains elusive thanks to corporate fears buoyed by Republican opposition. That resistance was again on display at Thursday’s hearing. “Let the market decide,” Roger King, a senior attorney for the HR Policy Association, repeatedly said as he warned that the bill’s requirement for overtime pay would significantly hurt employers.
It’s unclear how Sanders expects his renewed effort to convince Republicans this time. In all likelihood, he won’t. But as more companies slide back to pre-pandemic policies, keeping the demands of labor alive in the halls of Congress appears more critical than ever.
Check out Inae's story to learn more about what went down today...and let us know: what would you do with a four-day workweek?
—Julianne McShane
