Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush shared one of his economic policies - to push for longer working hours especially for underemployed and part-time workers.
In an interview aired over Twitter's Periscope, Bush shared his sentiments with New Hampshire's "The Union Leader," according to ABC News
Bush noted that his aspiration for the country is at least a 4 percent economic growth that can be achieved with a higher productivity and workforce participation that requires longer working hours. "(It's) the only way we're going to get out of this rut that we're in," said Bush.
An aide clarified in a statement that Jeb Bush was referring to the underemployed and part-time workers: "Under President Obama, we have the lowest workforce participation rate since 1977, and too many Americans are falling behind. Only Washington Democrats could be out-of-touch enough to criticize giving more Americans the ability to work, earn a paycheck, and make ends meet."
The Democratic National Committee has criticized Bush on this remark saying this is "one of the most out-of-touch comments we've heard so far this cycle."
"Americans are working pretty hard already & don't need to work longer hours - they need to get paid more," tweeted John Podesta, chairman of the 2016 Hillary presidential campaign.
Hillary Clinton tweeted a response to Bush's comment and with it an attached graph showing productivity growing but hourly compensation had barely risen: "Anyone who believes Americans aren't working hard enough hasn't met enough American workers," according to CNN
A 2014 Gallup poll found that already many Americans employed full-time report working, on average, 47 hours a week, while nearly four in 10 say they work at least 50 hours a week, ABC News reported.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said that U.S. workers toil more hours than workers in any other large, industrialized country.
