Hours of Labor

I

Introduction

Hours of Labor, length of the working day and the working week. Determining standard hours of work constitutes one of the principal issues in labor-management relations and is a major subject for social legislation in virtually all countries. Before the development of factories and the factory system of production in Europe in the 19th century, most industrial work consisted of handicrafts and was conducted by artisans in small shops. The number of daily and weekly hours that artisans worked was regulated by the guilds in the interests of the guildmasters and was regarded as a matter to be determined exclusively by the guild. Serfs, peasants, farmers, and agricultural laborers normally worked from dawn to dusk.

II

The Industrial Revolution

The number of hours of labor became an important social issue only after the Industrial Revolution, which began about 1760 in Britain and in the latter part of the 19th century in the United States. The Industrial Revolution created a large class of people who were dependent for their existence on paid employment and were subject to exploitation by the owners of industry. In 1800, both in Britain and the U.S., a 14-hour working day in industry was commonplace for men, women, and even children, and longer hours prevailed in some industries, particularly textile mills. In Britain a number of parliamentary enactments, called Factory Acts and sponsored by humanitarians and reformers, shortened the hours of labor for children and women. During the 1840s the political reformers known as Chartists led British workers in a series of militant struggles for a 10-hour day. Thereafter in Britain the pressure of workers organized in trade unions was the principal factor in effecting a reduction of the workday and the workweek.

In the U.S. workers began to agitate for shorter hours of labor in the 1820s. At the time of the American Civil War, however, the average number of hours worked in a week was 72 in agriculture and 64 in industry and commerce. During the industrialization of the country following the Civil War, pressure by workers for a shorter working day increased. By 1890 the 10-hour day and the 60-hour week were common in industry, while the average number of working hours per week in agriculture was about 70. Agitation for shorter hours continued unabated, and at the end of the 19th century the judiciary began to support legislation limiting the workweek and workday. The courts declared that the health of workers was a matter affecting the public welfare and that laws intended to preserve it were a legitimate exercise of governmental powers. This attitude made possible the later enactment of important laws establishing normal standards and legal limits for the workday and workweek.

III

The 8-Hour Day

The movement for an 8-hour workday originated among Australian workers in 1856 and was taken up in 1866 by a socialist organization, the International Workingmen's Association, led by Karl Marx. The National Labor Union in the U.S. in 1866 and the Trades Union Congress in Britain in 1869 publicly advocated an 8-hour day. In the U.S. workers on federal government projects were put on an 8-hour day by a congressional enactment in 1868, and in 1892 Congress extended the 8-hour day to all federal government employees. In 1886 a nationwide workers' demonstration for the 8-hour day was climaxed by the Haymarket Square Riot. After its founding in the early 1880s the American Federation of Labor joined with other labor groups in pressing for a general 8-hour law. The first national law establishing an 8-hour day for a private industry was the Adamson Act, covering railroad workers, which was passed by Congress in 1916 under threat of a general railroad strike.

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In the U.S. as in Britain, however, the 8-hour day was achieved primarily not through legislative enactment but through collective bargaining by labor unions and employers. By the end of World War I, the 8-hour day and the 48-hour week prevailed in most industries in the U.S. and Britain. An important factor influencing the trend toward the shorter workday was mounting evidence that productivity tended to increase when working hours were shortened.

IV

The 5-Day Week

During the economic depression of the 1930s, agitation for a 5-day workweek was widespread, particularly in the U.S., where labor leaders demanded that unemployment be relieved by spreading available work to more employees. In 1933, as part of the New Deal legislation under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the federal National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was enacted, creating the National Recovery Administration (NRA). The hours of work in many industries were reduced to 40 per week; the working day was established at 8 hours. Although the NRA was later invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government in 1938 established a 40-hour week for workers employed by firms in interstate commerce. The practice of limiting the maximum period of work to 5 days and 40 hours or less per week was virtually universal in the U.S. by the beginning of World War II.

By the middle of the 20th century most of the countries of the world had legislation limiting the basic workweek in nonagricultural industries to 40 or 48 hours. In 1967, for example, the Soviet Union announced that it would reduce its standard workweek from 6 days to 5 but keep the numbers of hours at 41 per week.

In the U.S., the standard workweek is generally 40 hours, but many industries have shifted to a 35-hour week. Standard workweeks of even fewer hours have been granted to some workers under the provisions of union contracts. Surveys indicate, however, that most workers prefer longer vacations and more legal holidays as an alternative to a shorter workweek.