The campaign for a shorter workweek is as old as the labor movement itself. With no reductions in the average U.S. workweek in the more than sixty years since the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s request that the Bush Administration develop a plan for transitioning federal employees to a workweek of four, 10-hour days is long overdue.

Although the Bush Administration is unlikely to move quickly on this issue, it’s already catching fire in workplaces across America. In Utah — hardly a radical bellwether state — the majority of state employees shifted last month to a 10-hour, four-day workweek with many state offices closing Fridays, according to the Shreveport Times, which reported that Iowa’s Gov. Chet Culver is considering a four-day work week, employees in Marion County, Fla., work only four days a week and road crews in Oconee County, S.C., and Walworth County, Wis., fill potholes only Monday through Thursday. A condensed work week now being tested in Honolulu “could cut the state’s electricity costs and contribute to quality of life for the 17,880 executive branch employees without trimming services to the public,” according to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

In fact, the Times noted that “Almost one-quarter of companies surveyed by Challenger, Gray and Christmas offer employees a condensed work week, typically four 10-hour days, which moves more Americans toward the long-held dream of three-day weekends.”

Congressman Hoyer correctly argues that a four-day workweek will save utility costs for the government and gas costs for employees. The long hours workers across the country are putting in on the job also have serious consequences for the health of millions of over-worked employees, for our fellow workers forced into part-time jobs or onto unemployment lines, and for our ability to lead rich, fulfilling lives. The harsh reality is that working hours have been kept high by the growth of part-time, low-paid work, and despite the development of many time- and work-saving devices, the proportion of workers putting in more than 48 hours a week on the job has been steadily increasing for over 50 years. Meanwhile, millions of workers are under- or unemployed.

Congressman Hoyer, by the way, has led by example. The House was not in session this year on Fridays — except in June to work on appropriations bills - so that members had more time “to work in their districts and to be close to their families.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Politics .