Franken – Legislation

CALIFORNIA – THEY ARE AT IT AGAIN!

AB2932

32-Hour Workweek Bill

Presented as a bill to allow California employees to work fewer hours each week, Assembly Bill 2932 by Assembly members Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) and Evan Low (D–Campbell), would require all businesses in the state with 500+ employees to redefine a full-time workweek to 32 hours instead of 40 hours.

AB 2932 exempts union businesses and public employees.

• Any hours worked by an employee over 32 hours would be considered overtime. The bill would require significant changes to overtime rules.
• The bill would require the employers to pay employees at the same rate of pay as their current 40 hour week, meaning employees will be getting a raise. AB 2932 prohibits an employer from reducing an employee’s regular rate of pay as a result of this reduced hourly workweek requirement.
• This is a backdoor minimum wage increase without having to vote on one.” 

From:  California Globe By Katy Grimes, April 13, 2022

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I have money to wager that if this bill becomes law,  the ink from the Governors signature won’t be dry before ALL Public Employees will be demanding the same deal for them.  And, you can expect Union Employees to follow right on their heels.  You can also be assured that Hourly Workers for smaller employers will start demanding the same 32 hour work week in the name of “Equity”. 

Want to take me up on my wager?

California’s Democratic Controlled Legislature is hard at work on a plan to turn California into a 32 hour workweek State.  They seem to come up with these ideas without ever thinking them through and believe everything can be paid for by the Tooth Fairy.

Knowing how the hearts and minds of California’s Legislators work, I am sure they will promptly and rapidly acquiesce to a Public Employees demand for a 32 hour workweek.  After all, the Public Employees and their unions represent a large percentage of the Democratic Legislators voter base. 

Further, the members of California’s Legislature may be fiscal morons but even they know you cannot expect work requiring 40 hours of labor a week to be done in 32 hours.  Fortunately for the Public Employees there is an “easy fix”.  The State Legislature will simply authorize the hiring of the additional workers to fill in the 20% reduction in hours being worked now,  and,  raise taxes to cover the cost of the increased  payroll and benefits.  

The only other option would be to reduce hours of service to the public for places like the Department of Motor Vehicles etc..  You can be sure that is not going to happen.  The one thing we can take for granted is that Bureaucracies never get smaller.  They only grow larger.

For the private sector and those who work for an hourly wage, and for their employers, the 32 hour week in the “new” “Utopian” California, the options are less “Rosie”.  Private Employers and Companies cannot raise taxes to pay folks 40 hours of pay for 32 hours of work.

Some employers may simply choose, if fiscally possible, to simply cut their operations to a 4 day week business or, cut the hours of their current employees to 32 hours  a week (at their current hourly rate) and then hire additional, perhaps part time, employees (at that same hourly rate) to make up the other 8 hours of work needed to stay in business and still stay within their payroll budgets.  Remember, these are hourly, not salaried, employees. These employers live in the “real world”.    Private employers have to stay within fixed payroll budgets or go out of business.  No “Taxpayer Tooth Fairies” to raise taxes on.

The “good” news for their employee’s is that they will only be going to their “regular” job 32 hours a week.  The “bad” news is they will need that extra day to find a part time job to help make up for the lost income from that other 8 hours they used to work at the “old” job.  Ah, life in California!

If this passes it means California can expect a further “Exodus” of more businesses and their workers to other states with a more employer friendly work environment. 

Over my years of writing on these subjects I have come to wonder what happens to often well intentioned people who get into legislative office and then seem to forget what it is like in the “real” world of trying to run a business, provide jobs and services and stay within a budget so you can continue doing so. 

It seems like once they get elected and go to work at the Capitol or other offices, somebody drags them off into a back room and gives them “Stupid Pills” and they lose the ability to think about the (maybe) unintended consequences of their actions.

Bob Bandy April 2022