Since Gov. Scott Walker took office, much ado has been made of Wisconsin’s (possibly dubious) ranking as a business-friendly state. While in a vacuum being business friendly is a perfectly good thing — more jobs, more tax revenue and so on — it’s important to consider at what expense that business friendliness is coming. In Wisconsin’s case, it is pretty clear that this has been something of a zero-sum game: Gains for business owners have mostly come at the expense of workers.
Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, recently introduced a bill that would allow employees to work an unlimited number of days without a day off. Currently, state law requires that workers have one day off for every seven days worked. It’s worth noting that the rest day doesn’t have to be taken every seven days, e.g., someone could take a day off, work 12 consecutive days, then take another day off. Grothman’s “rationale” for the bill is that it would give workers more “freedom.” If workers want to be able to work more, he says, then they should be able to do so. Why stop someone from working more if they want to? Further, we would never want Wisconsin’s precious business owners to have a shortage of labor. This is all well and good in theory. In a perfect world, employees could choose exactly how much they want to work to optimize their utility, and that would be that.
While Grothman’s bill would require seven-day workweeks to be voluntary, it’s unlikely that it would be voluntary in reality. With Wisconsin labor unions constantly losing ground over the last several years, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine workers being fired or punished for not wanting to work seven days a week, even if it’s not officially for refusing to work more. Further, even if the workweek is actually voluntary, employees who don’t mind working nonstop would likely be preferred for promotions and raises. If there aren’t any official repercussions for wanting a day off, workers would doubtless feel a very real pressure to work as much as possible, regardless of whether or not they actually want to.
Besides, Grothman’s claim that businesses need this law to fill shifts simply isn’t true. With Wisconsin lagging behind the rest of the country in its economic recovery, there are still plenty of Wisconsinites — nearly 200,000 — who are looking for jobs. While some people might appreciate being able to pick up a few extra hours, an unemployed person would appreciate a job more. And, as mentioned above, Wisconsin’s labor laws aren’t even that restrictive — they still allow people to work 12 consecutive days without a day off. Of course, this all begs the question of whether allowing people to work seven-day weeks indefinitely is even good for the state as whole.
As study after study has shown American workers are becoming more overworked and stressed, Grothman’s bill would only exacerbate the situation. Even if the bill would help a few factories produce a little more, is it worth the toll it would take on the workers? Being a state that companies want to do business in is an important component of Wisconsin’s economic recovery. However, the view that Wisconsin should be as hospitable to businesses as possible without considering its effects on actual people is fatally flawed. Business is important, but not more so than people. While Grothman’s bill may be well-intentioned, it would do far more harm than good to Wisconsin and its economy.
Joe Timmerman (jtimmerman
