go to a 40 hour work week. The method of attaining the laws goal of a universal 40 hour
work week was initial to make a proposal to the American Federation of Labor. The
industrial revolution introduced yet new complexities. Sunrise to sunset was too long to
expect people to work indoors at tasks that were now totally disconnected from personal
survival. Factory workers became unhappy and began to push for shorter hours. First they
asked for a limit of 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. During the 1800s, they asked for 10
hours, 6 days a week. Labor Day was introduced in 1882, when most Americans were
still working 60 hours a week and only dreaming of a 48-hour week, which didn't become
the normal until World War I. It wasn't until 1938 that the Fair Labor Standards Act
started the final countdown: 44 hours in 1938, 42 hours in 1939, and 40 hours in 1940. So
the 8-hour, 5-day, 40-hour work week has only been with us since the year 1940.
In this article the standard work week, 40 hours, is soon to go into effect. The
wages and hours law puts into effect over time hourly rates and a minimal wage of 30
cents. This law has affected the whole country and immediately changed the lives of over
2.7 million people. However some wage earners were exempt from the over time law. It
did not affect the railroad workers, truck and bus employees, and retail salesman. In New
York and Pennsylvania both had more than 1 million working more then 40 hours week.
This greatly affected the income of these states. The amount of money these states
contributed to the federal government in taxes increased by more than 25 percent.
In the October 23rd article, the administrator of the wages and hours division,
Calum Fleming discussed the reasons for the longer work week. He says that the longer
work week was triggered by a desire to cut labor costs rather then increase production,
The wages and hour law affected well over the 12 million people unemployed at the
time in the country. The American Federation of Labor organization recommended that
the United States government adapt the forty hour week as a means of easing the post
war adjustment, This intern will help the unemployment rate drop throughout the United
States. This will the help the economy recover from the post war lost .
The November article states that few earners are said to be receiving enough for
their health and efficient living. In this article the American Federation of Labor urges
retention of the 40 hour work week and increase of wages for the defense program. The
Federation believes that labor should be mainly put towards the emergency program.
Alfred Sloan Jr, chairman of General Motors, urged a six day work week, rather than a 5
day work week, to increase production and speed up the defense effort. He also state that
raised wages should not be put into effect until cost of living increases, to avoid inflation.
The article also discusses that labor saving machinery and high speed work, only possible
under the shortened work week, have increased production since 1910.
The next article discusses the average wage. An average wage is also discussed in
this article. The average income of a family in the United States was 1,350 dollars a year.
The average hourly wage at the time was 65 cents an hour. To keep a family with
efficient living expenses was said to cost 2,211 dollars a year. There fore, very few
workers earned enough money to satisfy their needs. Millions of wage earners made only
30 to 60 cents an hour. Higher production rates could only make wages increases
possible, and higher production is only possible with a shortened work week.
In the November 29 article the American Federation of Labor reaffirmed that the
30 hour work week was the ultimate objective but should not be put into effect until after
the war emergency.The American Federation of Labor also denounced the lengthening of
the work week stating that it was "neither timely nor economically sound." The article
also states that in Europe, longer work weeks have cut efficiency and decreased
production, thus another reason to enforce the 40 hour work week. The 40 hour work
week also offered the "first substantial opportunity in eleven years to cut down
unemployment." With a shorter work week, more workers are needed offering jobs to the
millions of unemployed in the country at the time. The American Federation of Labor
recommended the30 hour work week to decrease unemployment rates for after the post
war period, since after the European crisis the United States is predicted to have the
biggest unemployment crisis in the history of the world.
Eventually there was an agreement reached on the proposed 40 hour week as a
standard across the nation. Since that law was passed in November of 1940 this has been
the standard across the nation. The law states that a full time employee must work up to
40 hours a week and anything over that would be considered over time. This gap between
industry and it's employees took quite a long time to close, but this law will be with us
for now almost 70 years and its not going to change any time soon. Even though this
trend toward a 40 hour week was so fiercely fought by industry and the United State
Government,70 years down the road it was for the best. The Unemployment rate in this
country is just below 5 percent and compared to the nearly 15 percent of the nation
unemployed in the 1940 this should be considered a vast improvement.
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