The state of California has decided that they want to lure more hourly workers to the state by mandating overtime for all hours beyond 32 in a week.
“There has been no correlation between working more hours and better productivity,” Garcia said
Well if that’s true, why stop at 32? Why not 16 hours? Or 8? Supporters claim that the same amount of work done in 5 days can be done in 4 days. The idea is that employees work 80% of the time for 100% of the pay and maintain 100% productivity. If that is the case, why can’t they work 80% of the time, maintain 100% productivity for 90% pay?
We all know that productivity will decrease by 20%, but labor costs will increase. This additional cost will be passed on to consumers and will result in more inflation, both within California and in all products exported or transported from California.
Let’s see what the proposed law says:
510.(a) (1) Eight hours of labor constitutes a day’s work. Any work in excess of eight hours in one workday and any work in excess of 40 32 hours in any one workweek and the first eight hours worked on the seventh day of work in any one workweek shall be compensated at the rate of no less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for an employee.
The compensation rate of pay at 32 hours shall reflect the previous compensation rate of pay at 40 hours, and an employer shall not reduce an employee’s regular rate of pay as a result of this reduced hourly workweek requirement.
The propsed act goes on to exempt union employees and government employees. If large employers are smart, they will separate workers into smaller divisions with separate FEINs, or will simply leave the state.