Reform
Actual work week lengths have been falling in the developed world.
In the United States, the work week length reduced slowly from before the Civil War to the turn of the 20th century. A rapid reduction took place from 1900 to 1920, especially between 1913 and 1919 when weekly hours fell about eight percent. In 1926, Henry Ford standardized on a five-day workweek, instead of the prevalent six days, without reducing employees' pay. Hours worked stabilized at about 49 per week during the 1920s, and during the Great Depression fell below 40. During the Depression, President Herbert Hoover called for a reduction in work hours in lieu of layoffs. Later, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which established a five-day, 40-hour workweek for many workers. The proportion of people working very long weeks has since risen, and the full-time employment of women has increased dramatically. Hours worked per capita in the US increased 20 percent from 1970 to 2002.
The New Economics Foundation has recommended moving to a 21 hour standard work week to address problems with unemployment, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, overworking, family care, and the general lack of free time. Other economists are concerned that shortening the work week will unfairly limit individual earning potential and weaken developed economies due to competition from the less regulated developing world.
Read more about this topic: Workweek And Weekend
Famous quotes containing the word reform:
“To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.”
—Thomas Carlyle (17951881)
“Undoubtedly if we were to reform this outward life truly and thoroughly, we should find no duty of the inner omitted. It would be employment for our whole nature.... But a moral reform must take place first, and then the necessity of the other will be superseded, and we shall sail and plow by its force alone.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“People who love soft methods and hate iniquity forget this,that reform consists in taking a bone from a dog. Philosophy will not do it.”
—John Jay Chapman (18621933)