The number 40 (sometimes 30) has become this arbitrary standard with large binary differences on each side of the fence. This makes it very difficult for people

The number 40 (sometimes 30) has become this arbitrary standard with large binary differences on each side of the fence. This makes it very difficult for people to negotiate time off, less than full time schedules, partial retirement etc. Laws written in the past often are deeply tied to the assumption of one american lifestyle and dream, which is no longer the reality, and thus is very inefficient for many many people. Laws written to instead capture the concepts and algorithmically scale them would be much more effective. Something like $EMPLOYER must pay N/40ths of the healthcare cost where N is the number of hours worked. People with 2 jobs could get full healthcare premiums covered. People who want to scale back to 1/2 time would know what to expect and it wouldnt be a binary decision factor.