The movement for decent working hours began in 1866.
Salvatore Laporta/KONTROLAB
100 companies in the UK are adopting a four-day workweek without cutting pay for their employees.
The companies are working with an organization calling for a four-day workweek.
Here’s a timeline of how the US adopted the five-day, 40-hour workweek.
One hundred UK companies have signed up for a permanent four-day workweek for all their staffers with no cut in pay.
While the companies employ a mere 2,600 people, a fraction of the UK’s workforce, the move signals a growing shift in how some leaders view the traditional work schedule.
The companies are partnering with a nonprofit called the 4 Day Week Campaign, founded by investor and philanthropist Charlotte Lockhart and author Andrew Barnes. The organization works with business leaders to encourage four-day workweek pilots and programs.
This update is part of a growing trend of more leaders considering a 32-hour working setup. Indeed, the pandemic accelerated public discourse over whether the 40-hour workweek still makes sense for some employees. Companies including e-commerce startup Bolt, Panasonic, and social media company Buffer have adopted four-day workweek policies since 2020.
Even business titans like Virgin Group founder Richard Branson support the movement.
“The idea of working five days a week with two day weekends and a few weeks of annual holiday is just something people accept. For some reason, it is considered set in stone by most companies. There is no reason this can’t change,” Branson wrote in a 2018 blog post. “In fact, it would benefit everyone if it did.”
Here’s a look back through the history of the 40-hour workweek and how we got to where we are today.
The history of the 40-hour workweek
August 20, 1866: A newly formed organization named the National Labor Union asked Congress to pass a law mandating the eight-hour workday. Though their efforts failed, they inspired Americans across the country to support labor reform over the next few decades.
May 1, 1867: The Illinois legislature passed a law mandating an eight-hour workday. Many employers refused to cooperate, and a massive strike erupted in Chicago. That day became known as “May Day.”
May 19, 1869: President Ulysses S. Grant issued a proclamation that guaranteed a stable wage and an eight-hour workday — but only for government workers. Grant’s decision encouraged private-sector workers to push for the same rights.
1870s and 1880s: While the National Labor Union had dissolved, other organizations including the Knights of Labor and the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions continued to demand an eight-hour workday. Every year on May Day, strikes and demonstrations were organized to bring awareness to the issue.
May 1, 1886: Labor organizations called for a national strike in support of a shorter workday. More than 300,000 workers turned out across the country. 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.”
1890: The US government began tracking workers’ hours. The average workweek for full-time manufacturing employees was a whopping 100 hours.
1906: The eight-hour workday was instituted at two major firms in the printing industry.
September 3, 1916: 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 1917.
September 25, 1926: Ford Motor Companies adopted a five-day, 40-hour workweek.
June 25, 1938: Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which limited the workweek to 44 hours.
June 26, 1940: Congress amended the Fair Labor Standards Act, limiting the workweek to 40 hours.
October 24, 1940: The Fair Labor Standards Act went into effect.
How the 40-hour workweek has evolved
Despite the long work it took to make the 40-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. In the US, a whopping 58% of managers said they worked over 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 60- or 80-hour workweeks, much of that time isn’t very productive. In fields like finance and consulting, some workers may only be pretending to work 80-hour weeks, a recent study suggests.
In general, research suggests that we can handle working 60-hour weeks for three weeks — after that, we become less productive.
This story was originally published in June 2020.