Who invented 40 hour work week

IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Politics Covid U. News World Opinion Business. Share this —. In Chicago , demonstrators fought with police over the next few days. Many on both sides were wounded or killed in an event that's now known as the "Haymarket Affair.

The average workweek for full-time manufacturing employees was a whopping hours. September 3, Congress passed the Adamson Act , a federal law that established an eight-hour workday for interstate railroad workers. The Supreme Court constitutionalized the act in September 25, Ford Motor Companies adopted a five-day, hour workweek. June 25, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act , which limited the workweek to 44 hours.

Despite the long work it took to make the hour workweek a reality, research shows people do continue to log longer work hours. In a survey by tax and professional services firm EY, half of managers around the world reported logging more than 40 hours a week. Presumably, some of that time is spent at home answering emails, instead of at the office. Meanwhile, there's evidence that some Americans see working around the clock as a kind of status symbol.

While many people claim to be working or hour workweeks, much of that time isn't very productive. In fields like finance and consulting, some workers may only be pretending to work hour weeks, a recent study suggests. In general, research suggests that we can handle working hour weeks for three weeks — after that, we become less productive.

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Sophia Lee Writer, Culture Amp. The history of the hour work week Believe it or not, the makings of the hour work week started in the 19th century. People were working 80 to hour weeks during this time. Grant issued a proclamation to guarantee eight-hour workdays for government employees. Grant's decision encouraged private-sector workers to push for the same rights.