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The 40-hour workweek became standard American law in 1940. Since then, worker productivity has spiked by 400 percent. The wages did not follow. Now, Bernie Sanders is looking at the rise of artificial intelligence and automation and asking a very specific question. Who actually benefits from the time saved by a machine? His new bill, the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act, offers an answer. It lowers the standard week from 40 hours to 32 over the next four years. Overtime would kick in earlier. Double pay would apply to any shift over 12 hours. The core rule behind all of it is that baseline pay and benefits cannot drop. The extra productivity gets returned to the worker as free time. Major labor unions are backing the proposal, but its path through a divided Congress remains steep.