Read theMandate

Project 2025Chapter 18 › Proposal

Require time and a half for work on the Sabbath

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, chapter 18, p. 589. Written by Jonathan Berry.

Require time and a half for work on the Sabbath

The document says “shouldWho acts: CongressHow: legislationp. 589 in the PDF
What the document says

“Congress should encourage communal rest by amending the Fair”

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, p. 589

The full proposal asks Congress to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act so that workers are paid time and a half for hours worked on the Sabbath, defaulting to Sunday, except for employers with a sincere religious observance at another time, to which the obligation would transfer. Houses of worship and employers legally required to operate around the clock, such as hospitals and first responders, would be exempt, as would workers otherwise exempt from overtime.

What the document actually says

“Congress should encourage communal rest by amending the Fair”

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, p. 589
That sentence, in plain words

Congress should help people rest on the same day. It would change the wage law.

What this is about

The book wants extra pay for working on the Sabbath. That would usually be Sunday. Hospitals and emergency services would be left out.

What is disputed
What this means is contested

The chapter prints its own dissent. An 'Alternative View' passage immediately after this proposal argues that government's role is to protect free exercise by removing barriers rather than erecting them, that a Sabbath premium would raise costs, limit access to goods and services, reduce work available on that day, and actually tempt some people into Sabbath work through higher wages. Both positions are the chapter's, and it resolves neither.

No action is recorded against this proposal. That is not evidence that none has been taken. See what the tracker does not yet cover.

Share this page

How to read this page

The quotation is the document's own words, exactly as printed, and we check the page number against the book itself before publishing. The paragraph underneath is our summary, not the document's words. So is the plain English version, which is why it sits beside the quotation rather than replacing it.

All proposals in this chapter →