In recent years, countries such as Iceland and Belgium and some domestic companies have experimented with the concept of four-day workweeks. Now, a new bill proposed by California Assemblymembers Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) and Evan Low (D-San Jose), Assembly Bill 2932 (“AB 2932”), proposes to make a four-day workweek the new normal in California for non-exempt employees.
Under existing law, both California’s Labor Code and its Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders set the threshold for weekly overtime at 40 hours per week. In its current form, AB 2932 would redefine the standard workweek for non-exempt employees who work for employers with more than 500 employees to 32 hours. Any work beyond 32 hours would trigger overtime.
In an attempt to mitigate the potential wage loss to employees from a reduced workweek, AB 2932 confusingly provides that “[t]he compensation rate of pay at 32 hours shall reflect the previous compensation rate of pay at 40 hours.” It is unclear whether this would mean that employers covered by AB 2932 would be prohibited from reducing salaried non-exempt employees’ salaries based on their shorter workweeks, or whether it would require that employers actually increase the hourly rate of pay for hourly-paid non-exempt employees so that, on balance, they end up earning the same amount of pay for 32 hours as they did for 40. Interestingly, AB 2932 does nothing to relieve overworked exempt employees.
If signed into law, AB 2932’s redefined...
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