As for King's hand-wringing about a "backdoor" increase in the minimum wage, would that it were so. The federal minimum wage was last raised in 2009, to $7.25 per hour from $6.55. Since then, Congress hasn't mustered the votes for a further increase while the wage has been devastated by inflation.

The value of the wage in 2022 dollars peaked at $13.46 in 1968, when the nominal wage was $1.60. In other words, the hourly wage of workers earning the federal minimum has been cut almost in half in the last 56 years.

Viewing the four-day workweek exclusively as an employer cost is the wrong way to think about it, however. Indications are that it can be a boon to employers.

Pilot programs in the U.S., Europe, South Africa and Brazil have found that worker productivity rises — in other words, employers get more out of their workers for the same pay.

In the U.S. and Canada, according to Boston College sociologist Juliet Schor, who studied pilot programs established by the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global, more than two-thirds of workers showed less job burnout; anxiety and fatigue declined for 40%; and 60% reported more success achieving a work-family balance. Almost every participant wanted to continue the program.

"Workers tell us about improvements in mental and physical health, ability to spend time with family, and finally getting a chance for time for themselves," Schor told the HELP Committee. The changes persisted through the end of the yearlong study period.

More than 90% of the 202 companies in Schor's sample continued the program past the one-year mark. And why not? Among the U.S. and Canadian companies in the sample, turnover fell by more than 20% and absenteeism by 39%.

None of that might stem the knee-jerk opposition to the four-day week among businesses and their water carriers on Capitol Hill.

"A 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay? Who wouldn't want this?" asked Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, the ranking Republican on Sanders' committee. "But unfortunately, we live in reality."

Cassidy did the raw math and declared that "the government mandating a 32-hour workweek while requiring businesses to increase pay at least an extra 25% per hour of labor will destroy employers, forcing them to either ship jobs overseas or dramatically increase prices to try and stay afloat." Naturally, he blamed President Biden: "The Biden administration has been dumping gasoline on his inflation fire. This would be napalm."

...continued

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.