WITH LIBERTY AND
LEISURE FOR ALL
employment by the equivalent of
800,000 jobs in 2021 because new
subsidies will make it easier for
people to buy their own insurance,
“which will encourage some people
to work fewer hours or to withdraw from the labor market.”
Unlike most other developed
countries, including Canada, Germany and Italy, the U.S. does not
have a national work-sharing program. But an increasing number of
states have begun trying it out. In
2012, a bipartisan agreement led
Congress to give states extra cash
to promote and operate short-time
compensation programs. Last year
the U.S. government estimated the
program saved some 60,000 jobs.
In 2009 it saved 165,000.
Economist Dean Baker, one of
the foremost proponents of worksharing, is baffled by how little
attention the concept has received,
given its bipartisan backing.
“It’s almost incredible, the
lack of publicity,” he said.
“We’ve been able to get almost
nothing from the White House in
terms of promoting it.”
Germany’s short-time compensation program increased
employment there by 250,000
to 400,000 jobs in 2009, according to the Urban Institute.
HUFFINGTON
10.13.13
Here, the scheme is available in
only 26 states, with Ohio having
signed up this year.
“The appeal is that employees
don’t have to have the conversation with their families that [they
ACCORDING TO THE
GOVERNMENT’S CURRENT
POPULATION SURVEY IN 2001,
7 PERCENT OF AMERICANS
SAID THEY WOULD BE WILLING
TO WORK FEWER HOURS, EVEN
IF IT MEANT EARNING LESS MONEY.
THE GOVERNMENT HASN’T
ASKED THE QUESTION SINCE.
are] laid off,” Bob Peterson, a
Republican member of the Ohio
House of Representatives, said in
an interview in March. The Ohio
General Assembly approved the
work-sharing plan in July.
Still, even as he sponsored the
work-sharing plan, Peterson scoffed
at the notion of a shorter workweek.
“My background is I’m a
farmer,” Peterson said. “I’m used
to a 60-hour workweek. A
40-hour week sounds like a
vacation to me.”
Arthur Delaney is a staff reporter at
The Huffington Post.