History of the 40-Hour Workweek
Much of modern history on some level reflects the evolution of the labor movement and the gradual improvement of the lot of the worker. One of the seminal accomplishments of the modern labor movement, along with the advent of unions, safe workplaces and the banning of child labor, was the establishment of the 40-hour workweek.
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Early History of the Labor Movement
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The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement began with labor in England in the early 19th century, but it took more than a century for it to become the worldwide norm. In almost all nations, the process was similar in that the skilled labor class, which was often unionized, first won the eight-hour day from management, and over time it spread to become the expectation for almost all classes of employment.
The Fair Labor Standards Act
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The Fair Labor Standards Act was part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal agenda, and although extremely controversial at the time, it eventually passed Congress and was signed into law by FDR in 1938. The FLSA initially set the maximum workweek for all nonexempt workers at 44 hours as a legislative compromise, but it changed to 40 hours a week a few years later. The FLSA also set the first minimum wage at 45 cents an hour and prohibited almost all child labor, which was still a common practice at that time in many parts of the United States.
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The 40-Hour Workweek
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It took until the 1950s for the 40-hour workweek to become the near-universal norm in the U.S. To this day, American law is written so that a higher percentage of employees are exempt from the 40-hour workweek requirement than in most other countries.
Overtime
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Overtime pay --- 1.5 times normal pay for hours above 40 in a week --- also became law with the FLSA. While overtime pay is certainly a positive for workers, and further defines reasonable expectations for workers by employers, the Act also codified the right of management to require overtime of their employees at their discretion, with some exceptions.
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