Don't start planning your long weekend yet – proposal is likely to be a hard sell in work-obsessed America
"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
Sanders introduced the bill during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing, of which he is the chairman. Along with citing the productivity rise of the average worker thanks to modern technology, Sanders also pointed out in the hearing that Americans are typically working well beyond the 40-hour workweek established by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
To put that in perspective, Sanders pointed out that, in 2022, US workers labored for an average of 204 more hours than Japanese employees,"and they're hard-working people in Japan," Sanders said. Americans also worked around 279 more hours than UK residents, and logged 470 more hours on the clock than Germans, all while making around $50 a week less than 50 years ago, when adjusted for inflation, Sanders claimed.