New bill could make four-day work week standard in US

The idea of the traditional five-day working week in the US is being challenged thanks to a new bill reintroduced into the House of Representatives.

It comes as California Representative Mark Takano led the way on the bill that calls for making the four-day week of work a federal law.

As CNBC reports, the initiative claims that the move would ensure “a significant change which will increase the happiness of humankind”.

The bill was endorsed by the Commercial Workers Union, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Orgs, 4 Day Week Global, Service Employees International Union and United Food.

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The Republican Takano released a statement about the new bill saying: “Workers across the nation are collectively reimagining their relationship to labor—and our laws need to follow suit.”

He added: “We have before us the opportunity to make common sense changes to work standards passed down from a different era. The Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act would improve the quality of life of workers, meeting the demand for a more truncated workweek that allows room to live, play, and enjoy life more fully outside of work.”

Takano later wrote on Twitter: “The data is in & the time is now to modernize work culture for the better. I’m reintroducing the 32-Hour Workweek Act to allow workers to begin reclaiming their time, and their lives, with no loss of pay."

It’s not the first time that the idea has been suggested across the world. Earlier this year, the world’s biggest trial of a four-day working week was hailed a “major breakthrough” after most companies involved said they will keep to the shorter week following the pilot.

The findings of the pilot scheme were presented to MPs in February as campaigners urge lawmakers to give every British worker a 32-hour working week.

The trial saw 61 companies across a variety of sectors in the UK commit to reducing their working hours for all staff by 20 per cent, for six months from June last year.

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