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The Day Is Dawning on a Four-Day Work Week

posted by martyb on Friday June 05 2020, @07:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the toiling-away dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

The day is dawning on a four-day work week:

A true four-day workweek entails full-timers clocking about 30 hours instead of 40. There are many reasons why this is appealing today: families are struggling to cover child care in the absence of daycares and schools; workplaces are trying to reduce the number of employees congregating in offices each day; and millions of people have lost their jobs.

A shorter work week could allow parents to cobble together child care, allow workplaces to stagger attendance and, theoretically, allow the available work to be divided among more people who need employment.

The most progressive shorter work week entails no salary reductions. This sounds crazy, but it rests on peer-reviewed research into shorter work weeks, which finds workers can be as productive in 30 hours as they are in 40, because they waste less time and are better-rested.

30 hours is for pikers. The !Kung work about 20.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @10:15PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @10:15PM (#1003978)

    (sorry, obviously I should have mentioned what I meant is that if you just have one full time employer that wants to work you 40+ hours a week on a regular basis, sometimes 60+ a week, but they put you under a 1099. They tend to be the most demanding and least compromising. They give you all of the disadvantages of being an employee, like having to show up every day on time and needing to call off ahead of time and not being expected to call off very often and sometimes needing you to stay over and being called last minute on your days off or making you come in earlier than normal last minute on a given day and constantly changing your hours whenever they see fit, while giving you none of the advantages. And they also want to pay you little while not paying overtime rates if you work overtime. Funny thing is after you leave their company they call you weeks later and are suddenly willing to negotiate wages but by then it's too late).

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 06 2020, @05:04AM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 06 2020, @05:04AM (#1004089) Journal

    And they also want to pay you little while not paying overtime rates if you work overtime.

    Let's see [myemploymentrights.com]:

    The Test for Overtime

    Generally, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, everyone who works over forty (40) hours in a week is entitled to overtime pay. Simply referring to a worker as a contractor, or 1099 worker, does not mean the employer does not have to pay that person overtime wages. Also, agreeing to be a contractor or 1099 worker does not necessarily mean you are not entitled to overtime pay.

    To determine whether an individual is entitled to overtime pay, the law will often disregard titles, labels, and even written agreements. Instead, courts and the Department of Labor rely on the “Economic Realities Test.” In other words, as a matter of economic realities, is the so-called contractor truly in business for themselves, or are they economically dependent of the employer for their livelihood? If they are economically dependent on the employer for their livelihood, they will be considered an employee. This would mean they are entitled to overtime pay.

    Just because someone wants something doesn't mean that they get it.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2020, @04:46PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2020, @04:46PM (#1004232)

      I know but I am not going to go through all the trouble of suing them. Easier to just find another job.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 06 2020, @06:03PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 06 2020, @06:03PM (#1004264) Journal

        I know but I am not going to go through all the trouble of suing them.

        You can also report [dol.gov] them. The problem here is that when the employee is complicit in the crime with the employer, then why should the rest of us care? To me, that sort of cooperative behavior could be a sign that labor laws are too strict (depending on how prevalent it is).