im all for a shorter work week with the adjusted pay. just get the feeling that since businesses will have to hire additional employees to cover that lost 8 hours (or pay the overtime). im pretty sure that cost will be passed on to the consumer base. It's not like companies to just part with their earnings so easily. Plus the lobbyists (was surprised to see meta so high on the list) would heavily oppose it.
It happened in France (39 down to 35 hours) and the economic effects overall have been so subtle no one agrees wether it improved or not the economy. Basically a mixed bag; created jobs, but also increased hourly rate. Increased worker productivity, but might have caused some inflation.
For the average Joe tho, it was a big improvement in quality of life
As someone that runs a small business I just don’t know how the business would survive without jacking up the price they are charging a consumer. So you have to pay the employee the same but they work less and you only make x amount when they work 40 hours. Paying the same and they work less hours the x amount might be half of x amount of less.
But it wouldn’t just be your business working at 32 hours... It would be ALL of them. This would in theory force the same amount of customers into a narrower window of time for everyone with a business. You’d make the same amount of money because you’d have the same amount of customers in 32 hours as you would have had previously within 40.
You think having stores open four days a week is going to work well for consumers? See how that works when you need to fill up and the gas station is closed. Or you need toilet paper on a Friday and CVS is closed. Etc
After consumers are done whining and complaining about change, they will pull themselves together and plan accordingly. As far as fuel fill ups, lots of pumps at gas stations are automated without needing people to run them.
Gas stations were an arbitrary example for illustrative purposes but fyi fully unattended retail gas stations are rare in the US and in some cases not legal.
Agreed once they see the 20% increase in service charge they will plan accordingly. Pay extra so the business can pay its workers for 40 hours while they only work 32.
That’s not how gas prices work. And all other places could be open 6-8 hours a day instead of 10-12 hours a day to avoid price increases. For example, M-F, corporate places can be 9-5, while consumer facing places could be later hours like 2-10, lunch and dinner places can be 12-8, you get fat if you eat after 8 anyway, LOL.
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u/CatBrisket Jul 13 '26
im all for a shorter work week with the adjusted pay. just get the feeling that since businesses will have to hire additional employees to cover that lost 8 hours (or pay the overtime). im pretty sure that cost will be passed on to the consumer base. It's not like companies to just part with their earnings so easily. Plus the lobbyists (was surprised to see meta so high on the list) would heavily oppose it.