I spoke with Scripps News anchor Lauren Magarino on Thursday, April 5th about Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders's proposal to institute a 32-hour work week. You can watch the video here:
As Lauren explained in her introduction, the Sanders bill is not likely to pass any time soon, but that's not the point. Although I expect the Senator would like the bill to pass, I sense his goal is to create an opportunity for more discussion about how American workers are working harder and longer for less pay. Real wages have been flat or declining for decades, although there has been good quality real wage growth over the last year. Meanwhile, corporate profits and productivity have increased dramatically. The Sanders bill makes the point that workers should share in more of the benefits of increase profitability and rising productivity.
The Sanders bill is the beginning of the discussion. Ideas take time to mature into laws in Washington. The Family and Medical Leave Act was enacted nine years after it was first introduced. There is more work to be done and, as Lauren and I discussed, more details to be worked out. But it is a conversation that is well worth having.
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