{"id":1845769,"date":"2023-02-14T03:19:31","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T08:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1845769"},"modified":"2023-02-14T03:21:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T08:21:35","slug":"marylands-four-day-workweek-bill-is-the-wrong-solution-to-a-real-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/marylands-four-day-workweek-bill-is-the-wrong-solution-to-a-real-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland\u2019s Four-Day Workweek Bill Is the Wrong Solution To A Real Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmarylands-four-day-workweek-bill-is-the-wrong-solution-to-a-real-problem%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1845769&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>This sounds like a terrible punchline. At a time where businesses are having trouble finding and keeping qualified workers, one state wants taxpayer dollars to pay businesses. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/push-4-day-work-week-picks-steam-critics\">employees work less<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the genesis of a bill introduced in the Maryland General Assembly last month, which seeks to study shifting to a standardized four-day workweek. While businesses should certainly reassess how they manage their employees \u2014 a move that the pandemic accelerated via the explosion in remote work \u2014 they don\u2019t need taxpayer dollars, or government micro-management, to do so.<\/p>\n<p> Paying Businesses to Reduce Working Hours <\/p>\n<p>The Maryland <a href=\"https:\/\/mgaleg.maryland.gov\/2023RS\/bills\/hb\/hb0181F.pdf\">legislation<\/a> creates a tax credit program, purportedly to sunset after five years, to provide subsidies to businesses. The program would reduce state income taxes for two years for businesses with at least 30 employees that switch from a five-day workweek to a four-day workweek without reducing employee pay.<\/p>\n<p>The bill would fund the subsidy program with up to $750,000 for each of the five years. It would also \u201cencourage governmental units to institute a four-day work week\u201d \u2014 which Maryland taxpayers may not appreciate, particularly if it has any effect on the quality of services they receive.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation itself seems like a solution in search of a problem. If businesses find it in their best interests to change or reduce working hours, they will do so. They shouldn\u2019t need taxpayer funding to alter their business practices. And these types of subsidy programs will come with myriad new regulations, which will only further entrench the government\u2019s role in dictating how a business should operate.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, this type of program could easily prejudice certain types of industries and types of workers over others. Service-sector businesses, in particular, that rely on personal interactions with customers seem unlikely to qualify or want to participate. Would a gas station, or hair salon, shift its employees to a four-day workweek at a time when many can\u2019t find enough qualified employees as it is? I wouldn\u2019t hold my breath.<\/p>\n<p> Rethinking How and Where People Work <\/p>\n<p>As misguided as the Maryland bill is, that doesn\u2019t mean the existing work environment doesn\u2019t need to change. Some businesses could perhaps change their practices to reduce employees\u2019 workweeks \u2014 they just don\u2019t need the government paying them to do it.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, what employee hasn\u2019t, at one point or another, found the dreaded \u201cweekly meeting\u201d the bane of his existence? I faced these on Capitol Hill in nearly every office I worked for. Every week \u2014 normally at some point on Monday \u2014 the entire staff would gather to update the boss on that week\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n<p>In many cases, these types of meetings feature very limited interaction: One person at a time updates the boss, and everyone else listens. And the cumulative effects of those people sitting around waiting to update the boss add up. Even if a weekly meeting lasts \u201conly\u201d half an hour, in a 10-person office, that amounts to five total hours being spent on a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bill recently introduced in the Maryland General Assembly seeks to study shifting to a standardized four-day workweek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":1845772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[15634,15289,5001,4329,15631,7058],"class_list":["post-1845769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-four-day","tag-marylands","tag-real","tag-solution","tag-workweek","tag-wrong"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1845769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1845772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1845769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1845769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1845769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}