(Headline USA) Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., lashed out at a Fox Business reporter who questioned him about a proposal to cut the work week by an entire business day while forcing companies to pay the difference.
“I can yell as loud as you,” Sanders said, while repeatedly interrupting correspondent Hillary Vaughn.
It came after Sanders had previously spouted several socialist talking points about how “billionaires have got to start paying their fair share of taxes,” despite the fact that the proposal would dispropotionately devastate small businesses.
Sanders introduced the bill this week, titled the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act, which which would require employers to offer their employees a four-day work week with no loss of pay.
It would effectively reduce the standard work week from 40 hours to 32 hours over four years by lowering the threshold of overtime pay for employees.
It would also limit employers’ ability to use overtime by requiring overtime compensation at time and a half for work days longer than eight hours, and double a worker’s regular pay for work days longer than 12 hours.
The legislation would also prevent employers from using the shorter work week to reduce workers’ pay and benefits.
In a statement, Sanders claimed a shorter work week with no loss of pay was “not a radical idea,” according to NBC News.
American workers are “over 400% more productive than they were in the 1940s,” he explained. “And yet, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago. That has got to change.”
He went on to predict that artificial intelligence would further justify reduced working hours for millions of Americans.
“The financial gains from the major advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology must benefit the working class, not just corporate CEOs and wealthy stockholders on Wall Street,” Sanders said.
“It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life,” he continued. “It is time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay.”
Sanders argued that several European countries had already reduced their work hours. France, for example, has a 35-hour work week, and Norway and Denmark have 37-hour work weeks.
Critics, however, warned that many companies would not be able to afford to keep paying employees their current rates if they are producing less.
“We have a balance. We don’t have people as they do in China working 80 hours a week, but we have that balance—this disrupts that balance,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said, referring to the bill.
“And we won’t maintain the status of being the world’s wealthiest nation if we kneecap the American economy with something which purports to be good for the American worker, but indeed will lead to offshoring of jobs seeking for a lower-cost labor force.”
Even if technology reaches the point of supplanting workers, some fear there may be unintended consequences, warning that the increased reliance on machines will eliminate individual autonomy, resulting in a sort of serfdom, in which a large portion of society is dependent upon a smaller elite ruling class where all the wealth and means of production are centralized, either by the government or by wealthy corporations.
