On April 6, 1933, the U.S. Senate passed a bill by Senator Hugo Black for a 30-hour work week. The vote was 53 to 30. President Franklin Roosevelt turned to a different recovery plan, and the bill was dropped. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 required overtime pay after 40 hours, but did not cap hours.
On March 14, 2024, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act, for what news reports called “a standard 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay.” He said, “Moving to a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay is not a radical idea.”