A California lawmaker has introduced a bill to mandate 4-day workweeks in the latest indication of how much the workspace has changed.
The global pandemic forever changed the workplace, as companies the world over sent employees home to work remotely. Fast forward two years and many employees have resisted efforts to get them back in the office, having enjoyed the improved work-life balance that remote work has afforded.
According to CBS News, California assembly member Cristina Garcia has introduced legislation that would mandate 32-hour, 4-day workweeks for all companies with 500 employees or more. Work past 32 hours would pay time-and-a-half.
“After two years of being in the pandemic, we’ve had over 47 million employees leave their job looking for better opportunities,” Garcia said. “They’re sending a clear message they want a better work-life balance — they want better emotional and mental health, and this is part of that discussion.”
While the proposed law would likely be welcomed by many employees, not everyone is a fan. The Chamber of Commerce has called it a “job killer.
“Labor costs are often one of the highest costs a business faces,” Ashley Hoffman, the Chamber’s policy advocate, wrote to Evan Low, the bill’s cosponsor.
“[B]usinesses often operate on thin profit margins and… the number of employees you have does not dictate financial success,” she wrote.
Despite the reservations, as CBS News points out, 4-day workweeks have been adopted around the world, with many positive results. In fact, Dell is testing them in both the UK and the Netherlands.