Bernie Sanders says if AI is coming for workers, it should bring a four-day workweek with it

Bernie Sanders is trying to turn the AI panic into a work-hour cut. He and California Rep. Mark Takano have brought back the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act, a bill that would lower the standard week for nonexempt workers from 40 hours to 32. The pitch is simple: if new technology is going to make work more efficient, workers should get some of that time back instead of watching the gains flow upward.

The measure would not flip the country to a three-day weekend overnight. It would start at least six months after becoming law and then phase in over four years. Employers could still ask for longer weeks, but they would owe overtime. The bill also bars companies from cutting affected workers’ weekly pay or benefits just because the schedule changes.

Sanders has been making the case that AI and robotics should ease labor rather than enrich a small elite. Takano says labor law has not kept up with the last nine decades of technological change, from cell phones to the internet to AI. The bill would also add overtime after eight hours in a day and double pay after 12, tightening the rules that currently kick in only after more than 40 hours in a week under federal law.

The timing is obvious. Companies are racing to use generative AI to do more with fewer people, and the debate is no longer abstract. A 2026 analysis by Boston College sociologist Juliet Schor for the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute estimated that productivity gains from AI could let 35 million U.S. workers, or 28% of the workforce, move to a 32-hour week within a decade. Sanders has been here before too, introducing a Senate version in 2024.

The political fight is familiar as well. Sanders and his allies say the standard workweek has outlived the economy it was built for, while opponents warn about costs. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy raised that argument at a 2024 hearing, saying the extra labor expense could push up prices and strain thin-margin businesses. That is the real test here: whether AI becomes another excuse to squeeze workers, or the rare technology that gives them some of their lives back.