WITH LIBERTY AND
LEISURE FOR ALL
government payrolls, expanded
public works projects, and increased military spending have
usually been employed when the
economy has become ‘sluggish.’”
Shorter hours have simply not
been part of the equation.
BUT DON’T COUNT shorter
workdays out. Some companies
voluntarily shortened their workweeks in response to the Great
Recession. A 2009 survey of 245
large U.S. companies found that
13 percent had decreased hours
to prevent layoffs.
Casino mogul Steve Wynn and
steelmaker Nucor Corp., for example, cut hours and pay that
year instead of firing people. A
Nucor production manager told
the Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel
in 2010 that the shorter hours
weren’t easy for everyone. “People
were severely impacted from a
pay standpoint, in terms of hours
being cut and our unique bonus
structure,” he said. “But everyone
also understood that they kept
their jobs and their benefits.”
The recession has also triggered
a slew of proposals for governmentsanctioned work-sharing, also
known as short-time compensation. Under such a program, firms
HUFFINGTON
10.13.13
can reduce workers’ hours instead
of laying them off, and workers can
keep their jobs while collecting unemployment checks proportionate
to the hours they’ve lost. Since the
policy doesn’t cost much money,
it’s appealing to Republicans wary
of anything that might increase the
federal budget deficit.
This year, Republicans in the
House of Representatives also
HIGH LEVELS OF UNEMPLOYMENT
CAN ALSO MAKE WORKERS
EVEN MORE COMMITTED TO
LONG HOURS, AS THERE ARE SO MANY
OTHERS EAGER FOR YOUR JOB.
proposed changing the Fair Labor
Standards Act so that instead of
paying wage-earners time-and-ahalf for overtime, businesses could
offer future comp time instead.
Democrats countered that the bill,
known as the Working Families
Flexibility Act, would effectively let
employers stop paying overtime.
The family flexibility bill passed
the Republican-controlled House
but got no love from the Senate,
which is controlled by Democrats.
Hunnicutt, who has written
several books on shorter hours,
including one this year titled Free