My response to Max's four proposed policy changes, my own suggested
changes amplify Max's fourth proposal:
Lower or no taxes on the first X dollars of labor
earnings, higher on the remainder (there is more
than one way to do this, but the principle is the
main thing).
This is one I can endorse without any qualms. I've been advocating it
vigourously for five years here in Canada and it seems to finally be
getting some attention from an employer group, restaurant and hotel, and
the federal government. Several years ago Lars Osberg (with a bit
of prodding from guess who) advocated this in a federal govt. discussion
paper on the changing work place.
Preclude payment of health care costs by business firms.
(also disability life insurance, other fringes) by establishing
alternative sources.
Same as above.
Increase mandated overtime pay (definition of work week, etc.)
This one I'm more skeptical of. I would suggest that any increase in OT
premium should be in the form of a unemployment insurance surcharge and
not income for the employee. There is a contradiction in giving workers
incentives to over work. I'm also not convinced that 40 hours a week is
onerous. I think some tinkering would be in order: such as a weekly
absolute limit, say 50 hours and an annual limit on total overtime.
Facilitate non-standard work arrangements that
permit shorter weeks (conditional on ensuring
fringes noted above)
Again, total agreement. Some of the facilitation could be policy, some
persuasive and some collectively bargained (not to preclude mixtures of
the three).
One specific suggestion would be what I call rewarding years of service
with more time off and it basically has to do with extending the way
service increments are structured. The established practice is for
increments in vacation time and pay rate. The principle can easily be
extended to reduced hours of work.
Related to the above, but also distinct is to remove the financial
barriers to a more gradually phased retirement. Pension plans that base
benefit levels on income during the last years of service are an example
of such a barrier, discouraging people from cutting back on work time late
in their careers.
Unions need to start servicing their members on the working time
issue. One of the big problems, IMHO, is that unions have long emphasized
the political aspect of the issue, while neglecting its technical
subtleties. The result has been a failure on both the political and
technical terrain.
Similarly, there is a mythology among employers that if there was
a business case for reducing work time, it would already be
happening. This overlooks the extent to which it does already happen. It
also sets up a prejudicial standard for innovation: if it isn't already
being done, it must not be worth doing. Further it fails to recognize the
extent to which a widespread change may be beneficial but isolated
innovations may simply expose the innovativing firm to predatory behavior
from non-innovators (something like the way Manitoba trains nurses for
export to Texas and North Carolina).
