from Andrew Sheeler
Don’t count on that four-day work week just yet.
A California bill that would mandate employers to pay overtime for workers working more than 32 hours a week will not be advancing in the Legislature this session.
Assembly Bill 2932, authored by Assembly members Evan Low, D-Campbell, and Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, had been referred to the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, but missed the April 29 deadline for legislative policy committees to send it along for consideration by fiscal committees.
“I am disappointed that AB 2932 is not moving forward this year, but we must continue to elevate the conversation about the 4 day work week and in general ensuring our workforce has a better work life balance. There have been so many societal advances in the last 100 years. It doesn’t make sense that we are still holding onto a work schedule that served the industrial revolution. It’s long overdue that this progress is shared with our workforce which deserves an improved quality of life. This has been true for a while, but the pandemic and the Great Resignation have made it crystal clear the time is now to figure out how we return to better and not what we had before the pandemic,” Garcia said in a statement Monday.
The bill had been mocked by comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, and was dubbed by the California Chamber of Commerce as a “job killer.”
The bill “significantly increases labor costs by imposing an overtime pay requirement after 32 hours and other requirements that are impossible to comply with, exposing employers to litigation under the Private Attorneys General Act,” according to a CalChamber statement announcing that the bill had stalled.
“As the fifth largest economy in the world, California can lead the nation and further reiterate what we’re already seeing from companies who have made the shift — there has been no correlation between working more hours and better productivity. Some employers have even found their employees were more productive working a four-day work week,” Garcia said.
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Mark Smith
Advocate
California Builders Alliance
5370 Elvas Avenue ǀ Sacramento, CA 95819
Cell: 916.335.5072
Email: mark.smith@calbuilders.org
Email: mark@smithpolicygroup.com