Essay About Hour Work Week And Initial October 20Th Article

40 Hour Work Week
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In the initial October 20th article there was a proposal for the nations industry to
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 didnt become
the normal until World War I. It wasnt 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