Long weekends could hit low-paid workers

A three-day weekend every other month sounds great, but the proposed arrangement could be tough on low-wage workers.

The current version of the legislation, spearheaded by Kulanu MK Eli Cohen, would create a national holiday on a Sunday every two months, but allow businesses to stay open if they pay their workers an extra 25-50 percent. School holidays would coordinate to align with the Sundays off, to ensure that parents and their kids have more similar schedules, meaning parents wouldn’t have to take time off from work or pay for childcare.

Since many people would want to spend the day having fun – going to movies, shopping, eating out, and hitting up domestic tourist spots – those places would be more likely to stay open, and shell out the extra cash to their employees.

But some critics are concerned that the plan, while serving the better-off, would impose new burdens on the low-paid service workers who would likely be drafted to work on those holidays.

“Children of the poor will not have the framework of where to go, and their parents will be working, because the holiday is a day in which the rich will go for leisure, and the poor will work,” said Michel Strawczynski, a researcher at the Hebrew University and head of the Economics and Society program at the Van Leer Institute.

Even with a salary boost, he argues, the arrangement may not help low-wage service workers who are forced to pay for childcare.

And hourly workers who work at white collar office buildings, such as cleaners, would see their salaries drop as their places of business shutter for the day.

The Bank of Israel, which provides the government economic policy analysis, expects that additional days off would have both upsides and downsides for the economy, but does not see the program as an overall economic booster.

In the worst-case scenario, cutting six of 250 working days a year, or 2.5%, would lop off 2.5% of GDP. But BoI researchers told The Jerusalem Post that they see a more limited impact, partly because there will be a boost to domestic tourism and service industries. That, they said, could reduce inequality, though they did not account for how childcare costs might fit in.

Small service-oriented businesses, though, aren’t sure how it would play out.

“Closing the business is a problem, so I’ll have to pay more to the workers,” said Itzik Dagmi, the owner of the Port 19 restaurant in central Tel Aviv. “If there’s more traffic, that’s great. But we don’t know what will be. We’ll have to see.”

Another sector that could be hard-hit is manufacturing, which accounts for a quarter of economic output. In a competitive global marketplace, factories and hi-tech companies alike would have to choose between delaying the delivery of their products and paying higher labor costs for getting them out on time.

That is how Eli Granit, the CEO of furniture manufacturer Global Israel, sees it. Every day his plants are closed, means one less day of production, he said.

“When you look at any regulation, it’s good, but all in all it’s a burden,” he said, arguing that more investment in technology would boost wages, which would be better for workers.

All in all, BoI researchers said, the proposed change would shift economic activity slightly away from export-oriented industry and toward domestic consumerism.

That would amplify an already-growing trend in Israel, which has seen private consumption prop up the economy as the strong shekel and poor global economic environment have hit exports.