A new report out by Newsweek says California legislators are weighing a new bill that would cut the workweek for larger companies from 40 hours to 32 hours.
If passed, the legislation would affect companies with more than 500 employees.
A four-day workweek for larger companies is being discussed in the California State Legislature.
The California State Assembly’s Labor and Employment Committee was expected to decide by week’s end whether a proposal defining the workweek in the state as 32 hours, not 40, for larger companies moves forward.
If it eventually gets passed, the bill would affect more than 2,000 private-sector companies with more than 500 employees.
Here’s the rub. Since the workweek would only be 32 hours long, the legislation would call for employees to be paid time-and-a-half for overtime. Meaning anything over 32 hours would be considered overtime.
Meaning the cost of paying employees would increase significantly for the 2,000 businesses affected by this bill and that, in turn, would drive prices up and result in more employees laid off.
This is why California’s Chamber of Commerce is not on board with the bill:
The legislation also calls for hourly employees to be paid time-and-a-half for overtime.
Not everybody is on board with the effort.
The California Chamber of Commerce earlier this month added the bill to its “job killer list,” saying the legislation would significantly increase labor costs for a state that is home to many of the world’s largest tech companies and is the most-populous (39 million) U.S. state.
Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economics professor, told WSJ that the bill, which would require businesses to pay the same amount of money for one less day of work, should not pass.
“Jobs will shift to Nevada or Oregon, and employers will not be able to raise pay for many years,” Bloom told WSJ.
Bloom is exactly right. More large businesses would end up fleeing the state of California for other states that aren’t so hostile to large business.
The cost of moving a company is, I’m sure, tremendous and is completely unnecessary. Because Democrats can’t leave anything alone. They are elitists who think they know better and end up ruining everything. And that’s exactly what this bill will do.