California Assembly Proposes Four-Day Workweek

Meeting Invoice 2932, a brand new invoice proposed by California Meeting Members Evan Low and Cristina Garcia, would amend Part 510 of the California Labor Code to alter the workweek from the usual 40-hour workweek to a 32-hour workweek for firms with greater than 500 workers.

Presently, California workers are entitled to additional time pay for any time labored after 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in per week.  Time beyond regulation is paid at one and one-half instances the worker’s “common fee of pay.”  California is one among only some states with the 8-hour each day additional time threshold.  Nearly all of states all adjust to the Truthful Labor Requirements Act (“FLSA”), which solely requires additional time after 40 hours in per week.  If handed, AB 2932 would make California the one state in the whole nation to additionally decrease its 40-hour weekly additional time threshold to 32 hours (though only for employers with not less than 500 workers), additional cementing its standing as essentially the most anti-employer jurisdiction within the nation.

As well as, AB 2932 provides the next provision: “The compensation fee of pay at 32 hours shall mirror the earlier compensation fee of pay at 40 hours, and an employer shall not scale back an worker’s common fee of pay because of this diminished hourly workweek requirement.”  It’s presently unclear whether or not this provision would prohibit employers coated by AB 2932 from lowering salaried non-exempt workers’ salaries based mostly on their shorter workweeks, or whether or not it could require employers to extend the hourly fee of pay for hourly-paid non-exempt workers in order that they find yourself incomes the identical quantity of pay for 32 hours as they did for 40.

All in all, AB 2932 (if handed) would create vital burdens for employers with greater than 500 workers by exacerbating staffing shortages, elevating labor prices, and producing extra lawsuits from plaintiff’s legal professionals.  The restricted workweek might additionally negatively affect workers by lowering the variety of hours accessible for staff as employers restrict hours to keep away from elevated labor prices.

As of now, it’s nonetheless unclear whether or not AB 2932 has a practical probability of being enacted into legislation.  Nevertheless, if handed, the legislation would mark the primary change to the definition of the usual 40-hour workweek in america since 1926.