After Jeb Bush’s remark Wednesday that “people need to work longer hours” as part of his plan to grow the economy, the former Florida governor clarified that he meant more Americans need access to full-time employment, rather than relying on part-time jobs.
“You can take it out of context all you want, but high-sustained growth means that people work 40 hours rather than 30 hours and that by our success, they have money, disposable income for their families to decide how they want to spend it rather than getting in line and being dependent on government,” Bush said in a Veterans of Foreign Wars town hall in New Hampshire.
Bush said because factors like rising healthcare costs have made it harder for small businesses to create jobs, giving employees the chance to work more hours “has got to be part of the answer.”
Critics seized on Bush’s remark from a meeting with the New Hampshire “Union-Leader” editorial board, chalking it up as another gaffe proving Bush is out of touch with average Americans.
Half of full-time American workers reported working more than 40 hours a week, on average, in 2014, and employees in the United States work longer hours and take fewer vacations than workers in any other industrialized country.
But there is also a growing crisis of full-time employment remaining just out of reach for many Americans, with about 75 percent of part-time workers either living in poverty or classifying as low income earners. There’s also been a well-documented increase in the number of involuntary part-time workers – those who have seen their hours cut but would prefer to work more than 34 hours a week – with levels remaining high even post-recession.
