Why is a Typical Work Day is 8 Hours Long?
During the Industrial Revolution, companies attempted to maximize the output of their
factories by keeping them running as many hours as possible, typically implementing
a “sun up to sun down” work day.
Wages were also extremely low, so workers themselves often needed to work these long
shifts just to get by, including often sending their children to work in the factories as
well, rather than getting them educated.
With little representation, education, or options, factory workers also tended to work
in horrible working conditions to go along with the bad hours.
The typical work day at this time lasted anywhere from 10-18 hours per day, six days a week.
This all began to change in the 19th century.
The first to suggest an eight hour work day for everyone was a British man by the name
of Robert Owen, who was also one of the founders of socialism.
Owen felt that the work day should be divided into thirds, with workers getting equal time
to themselves and to sleep as they do for work.
Thus, in 1817, he began campaigning for an eight hour working day for all workers, coining
the phrase, “Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.”
Unfortunately, this did not catch on for some time, though throughout the 19th century a
series of Factories Acts were passed that steadily improved working conditions and reduced
work hours for factory workers.
For instance, The Factories Act of 1847 stipulated that women and children were to be granted
a ten hour work day, thus only having to work 60 hours per week.
The eight hour work day cause was taken up once again in Britain in 1884 by Tom Mann
who was part of the Social Democratic Federation.
Mann subsequently formed an “Eight Hour League” whose sole goal was to get the eight
hour work day established.
Their biggest victory came when they managed to convince the Trades Union Congress, which
represents the majority of unions in Britain- and does so even to this day- to establish
the eight hour work day as one of their primary goals, which they subsequently began to work
towards.
The push for a shorter work day began earlier in the United States, in 1791, with workers
in Philadelphia striking for a ten hour total work day that would include two hours for
meals.
By the 1830s, support for eight hour work days was shared among the majority of the
working class people in the United States, but still failed to find support among business
owners.
Over the next few decades, workers continued to hold strikes demanding shorter working
hours and gradually things began improving.
Momentum for the cause particularly picked up with several “Eight Hour Leagues” forming
in the United States, as Mann had formed in Britain around this same time.
In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions declared that May 1, 1886
would be the first day that an eight hour work day would be made mandatory.
This, of course, was neither backed by any federal mandate nor the businesses themselves
and relied on workers striking and raising a general ruckus to drive the point home.
When May 1, 1886 arrived, the first ever May Day parade was held with 350,000 workers walking
off their jobs protesting for the eight hour work day.
Progress was still slow though and it wasn’t until 1905 that industries began implementing
the eight hour work day on their own accord.
One of the first businesses to implement this was the Ford Motor Company, in 1914, which
not only cut the standard work day to eight hours, but also doubled their worker’s pay
in the process.
To the shock of many industries, this resulted in Ford’s productivity off of these same
workers, but with fewer hours, actually increasing significantly and Ford’s profit margins
doubled within two years after implementing this change.
This encouraged other companies to adopt the shorter, eight hour work day as a standard
for their employees.
Finally, in 1937 the eight hour work day was standardized in the United States and regulated
by the federal government according to the Fair Labor Standards Act.
It stipulated that workers were not to work more than 44 hours per week and any hours
over 40 required of the worker were to be paid with overtime bonuses added to their
normal pay rate.