Three Democratic state lawmakers are hoping to make Pennsylvania a more appealing place to work. The trio has proposed a pilot program to supply tax credits to businesses that provide a four-day, 32-hour work week to commonwealth-based employees without reducing compensation or benefits packages.
The proposal by Dauphin County Representative David Madsen and his colleagues Chris Pielli of Chester and Joshua Siegel of Lehigh is still in the planning phase, and has been created in response to Governor Shapiro’s ambitious goals of expanding the Pennsylvania workforce. Additionally, the trio knows the governor intends to bring more businesses to the commonwealth. “In my district,” Madsen explains, “for every one [potential] worker there are two jobs. If employers already can’t find people, we’re going to have a tough time finding additional employees with a labor market this tight.” The three lawmakers see the shortened work week as an incentive to new hires – not to mention a retention tool for those already employed.
While the concept may seem radical in the United States there are healthy models across Europe and Asia that have realized increased productivity when workers had more time to spend on themselves and their families. A recent and similar pilot program in the United Kingdom concluded with dozens of businesses sticking with the model, citing “major benefits to workers’ health and productivity when their hours were reduced.”
Pennsylvania is not a very...
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