SENATE BILL: Amendment to The Productivity Equalization....Act (Failed)

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Basically what this Amendment seeks to do is entrench the 32 hour workweek across the whole of Atlasian society and provide more money for those who work longer hours, i.e. further overtime compensation. This bill will give more workers in Atlasia more free time, more pay if they work longer hours, and will generally help to reduce the stressors and problems of day to day life that accompany the 'working life' to quote Mr. Springsteen.

Though I will admit that the time limits posted here are off because of when I introduced the bill, so I'll be offering the following amendment to remedy the situation:

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Another Bill whose intentions I respect, but I think will be unworkable in application.

How? We already have a 32 hour workweek.

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Another Bill whose intentions I respect, but I think will be unworkable in application.

How? We already have a 32 hour workweek.

I wasn't clear, what I mean is, have we any idea what the impacts would be on small businesses? I'm not too concerned about large or medium enterprises but have we got any evidence of the bottom-line impacts?

My primary concern is that employees are properly and appropriately compensated for work beyond normal hours, but this consideration can't be ignored.

I can see myself supporting this, as long as I get some data, this can't be about an ideological want in isolation from the economic realities.

I'll speak with Griffin on the matter and report back to you on this, Senator.

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Has Griffin responded yet?

As far as I know he's yet to respond with the numbers.

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Can we consider delaying further action on this Bill until we can get a clear economic impact.

At this point all we're waiting on is Griffin's numbers. I don't think that should mean we remove this legislation from the floor or anything of the sort if that's what's being suggested.

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Still nothing from Griffin, though to be fair, he said this one was going to take a bit. Hopefully we can get those numbers by the end of the week.

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From GM Griffin:

The proposed legislation would directly impact 25.4% of the Atlasian workforce. This - excluding other economic factors and potential future legislation - would result in an estimated 1.4% decrease in median wages over the next twelve months, and a 2.5% decrease in median wages over the next five years.

The rate of unemployment would not be impacted in any significant regard in the short-term as businesses with more than 50 employees adjust to the new regulations, but a general trend in the decline of unemployment is expected over the next five years as smaller companies increasingly move to build their workforces around an increased number of employees working less than 35 hours per week.

The average workweek for private non-farm payrolls is estimated to decline 0.7 hours over the next twelve months, with goods-producing payrolls declining 1.1 hours and private service-providing payrolls declining 0.6 hours. Over a five-year period, those numbers are estimated as declines of 1.4, 1.9 and 1.3, respectively.

Industry sectors estimated to be impacted the most by this legislation include mining and logging, utility companies, durable and non-durable goods manufacturing, and wholesale trade. Industry sectors estimated to be least impacted by this legislation include leisure and hospitality, retail trade and education/health services.

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I may propose a requisite pay increase requirement to compensate for lost wages here, but I'll do that at some point later tonight. I apologize, it's kind of hard to do that kind of number crunching from an iPad

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I may propose a requisite pay increase requirement to compensate for lost wages here, but I'll do that at some point later tonight. I apologize, it's kind of hard to do that kind of number crunching from an iPad

So... the Bill would likely lead to some lower wages... so you want to add to make sure that the wage losses are covered?

Aren't you kind of making this increasingly complex, especially since the impacts will be sector by sector.

I don't think requiring a percentage wage increase across industry to make up for lost wages is a complex concept.

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Basically how Subsection 3 of Section 4 will work is that it will force companies to share productivity gains with their workforce. If the economy as a whole has a 5% increase in productivity for 2013, that should mean a 5% increase in the minimum wage.

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Can we move to a final vote on this?

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Aye

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No more votes?

Apparently not. Godforbid Senators do their jobs.