I love the idea of a 32 hour workweek BUT I disagree with the expectation that it has to be a four day per week. I would appreciate the flexibility of working 5-6 hour days, so that you don’t have to find a ten hour babysitter when your kids are still babies, and when they go to school, if I get off a little early to pick my kids off from school.
The 32 hour work week was proposed by a Dem state legislator, and a federal senator, both of them from California. But they received pushback so they never made it to the floor for a vote. First of all, some workers complain that they will lose 8 hours of pay. In addition, businesses disliked having to pay more over-head costs, for example the cost of insurance, among other things. The state 32 hour work week was more liberal, and demanded that the workers be paid that lost 8 hours, however many people don’t like the idea of paying for work not being performed for obvious reasons.
As a compromise, I suggest that full time workers should have a right to request 8 unpaid hours off per week. We could set limitations similar to FMLA (for example, the worker must have been employed there for at least one year, and the employer has to have at least 50 employees in a 75 mile radius, something like that).
I posted a SIMILAR idea in my proposal below, although I limited the right to the 8 hours off to full time working parents and relative caregivers: