Monday, October 22, 2007

Green MP wants 35 hour working week


Sue Bradford wants a 35 hour working week. Lets see, if a one income family with two kids was working 40 hour week on $15 per hour, they`d get a $75.00 a week pay cut - $3,900 per year. They would not get any increase in working for Families payments due to a drop in income either. If that same family worked the same hours at $20 an hour, they'd get just $1,196 extra for a $5,200 drop in income due to the shorter working week.

So how do you think they`d survive? Work longer hours, of course. In a second lower paid job, more likely.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course, that assumes the French system of a complete ban on working more than 35 hour. Which even the French don't use any more.

The 35 hour week is actually a statement about when mandatory overtime pay kicks in, and so your minimum wage worker would probably see a pay rise due to the 5 hours of overtime. Or there'd be more part time jobs available due to all the people like him having their hours cut. Not ideal, but still worth while.

Anonymous said...

anonymous - of course your assertion does not include those who work overtime and dont get paid - like that low paid worker who works extra hours... if ther is to be legislatin to lower hours worked ther should be legislatin to ensure that those who wrk at least the extra five hours get overtime - and those who do so will defeat the purpose of the bill.