Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is renewing his push to lower the federal standard workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours, drawing sharp criticism from Club for Growth President David McIntosh, who warned the mandate could trigger job losses and make daily life more expensive for the very workers it aims to help.
McIntosh made the case Thursday on FOX Business’ “Varney & Co.,” telling host Stuart Varney that Sanders’ proposal, which would phase in the shorter week over four years without reducing pay or benefits, ignores how employers would absorb the added labor costs.
Also read: DOJ escalates antitrust review of Fox's $22B Roku acquisition with second request
AI productivity versus mandated hours
Sanders has tied his renewed legislative effort to the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, arguing that workers should share in the productivity gains the technology is expected to deliver. Under his plan, overtime pay would kick in after 32 hours rather than the current 40-hour threshold.
McIntosh pushed back on that framing, arguing that AI is already boosting wages for many workers by making them more productive — but that a government-mandated shorter week would produce the opposite effect.
Also read: Autonomy adds gas-powered Ford vehicles to revive its car subscription service
“AI will make people more productive, and they’ll get paid more, but Bernie’s idea will hurt the very workers he’s trying to help,” McIntosh said. “A lot of people will lose their job, lose their benefits when they implement something like that.”
The Club for Growth president also placed the workweek proposal within a broader economic agenda he said would raise costs for American households, criticizing what he described as “far-left radical socialist policies” that risk “making life more unaffordable for Americans.”
Administration officials join the opposition
The criticism is not limited to conservative advocacy groups. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, appearing on “The Sunday Briefing,” rejected the concept outright, grounding her opposition in a view of work as central to American identity.
“We believe in the dignity of work. It is a biblical foundation,” Rollins said. “I can’t imagine a scenario where we’d say, ‘Oh, everyone just stay home a couple more days. We’re only gonna work a couple of days.’ The American dream does not include a four-day work week from my perspective, at least.”
The debate arrives as Sanders also advances separate legislation that would create a government wealth fund taking a 50% stake in large AI companies — part of a broader push to channel technology-driven wealth toward public programs.
What a shorter workweek would mean for workers and prices
Economists who study labor mandates point to a central tension in Sanders’ proposal: holding pay constant while cutting hours raises the effective hourly wage, which businesses typically offset through higher prices, reduced hiring, or scaled-back benefits.
For workers in sectors where schedules are already flexible, the change could be marginal. But for hourly employees in retail, manufacturing, and logistics — industries where labor costs are a large share of operating expenses — the impact would likely be more pronounced.
Proponents of the shorter week counter that the policy would redistribute productivity gains and improve public health by reducing stress and burnout. Several European countries have experimented with four-day workweek pilots, though none has adopted a binding national mandate at the scale Sanders is proposing.
With AI adoption accelerating across the U.S. economy, the question of how productivity gains should be distributed is expected to remain a central policy fight in the coming years. Sanders’ proposal is unlikely to advance in the current Congress, but the debate over work hours and automation is expected to shape labor policy discussions well beyond this session.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Policy proposals of this nature involve significant uncertainty, and their economic impact remains a subject of active debate.
Warning: Attempt to read property "term_id" on false in /www/wwwroot/stockpil.com/wp-content/themes/flex-mag/functions.php on line 998