Skip to content

California Takes Yet another Anti-Work Step

As California struggles under the weight of its far-left policies and both employers and taxpayers flee as a result, taking their tax dollars and businesses with them, what’s California doing? Making it even harder for employers to earn a profit. Now the California legislature is trying to create four-day work weeks.

They’re doing so in the form of Assembly Bill 2932, a bill that was introduced by Evan Low and Cristina Garcia. That radical bill would, for companies with 500 or more employees, make a 32-hour workweek the standard. Specifically, the bill’s abstract says (emphasis ours):

Existing law defines and regulates the terms and conditions of employment. Existing law generally defines “workweek” for these purposes and requires that work in excess of 40 hours in a workweek be compensated at a rate of at least 1 12 times the employee’s regular rate of pay, subject to certain exceptions. Existing law makes a violation of these provisions a misdemeanor.

This bill would instead require that work in excess of 32 hours in a workweek be compensated at the rate of no less than 1 12 times the employee’s regular rate of pay. The bill would require the compensation rate of pay at 32 hours to reflect the previous compensation rate of pay at 40 hours and would prohibit an employer from reducing an employee’s regular rate of pay as a result of this reduced hourly workweek requirement. The bill would exempt an employer with no more than 500 employees from the above provisions. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

So, not only would the bill drop the workweek for large employers from the already low 40 hours a week to 32, but under the California law not paying employees overtime compensation for working a normal 40-hour week would be a misdemeanor! Even more ridiculously, California taxpayers will have to foot the bill for the legislature’s war on work, as the bill would reimburse companies for the ridiculous provision.

Describing why she sees the bill as necessary, Garcia, one of the bill’s sponsors, said:

There have been so many societal advances in the last 100 years. It doesn’t make sense that we are still holding onto a work schedule that served the Industrial Revolution. It’s long overdue that this progress is shared with our workforce which deserves an improved quality of life.

Or, perhaps, employers and employees should be free to set what hours they want rather than the government choosing some arbitrary number and then using government funds to pay people to adhere to it.

Further, there are plenty of gig jobs that people can work if they don’t want a 9-5, 40-hour workweek, or at least there were until California went to war with the gig economy.

But the lefties don’t want freedom, whether it’s freedom of action or the freedom to contract, so now they’re trying to mandate some ridiculous idea that will make it even harder for businesses in the state to earn a profit. Sounds about right for California.

By: Gen Z Conservative, editor of GenZConservative.com. Follow me on Parler and Gettr.

This story syndicated with permission from Will, Author at Trending Politics