The 40 Hour Work Week is Archaic & Exploitative
In 1595, King Phillip II of Spain signed into law:
”Law VI That the workers work eight hours a day distributed as appropriate.”
Before the Industrial Revolution, working less than 8 hours per day was common:
“One of capitalism's most durable myths is that it has reduced human toil.. This myth is typically defended by a comparison of the modern forty-hour week with its seventy- or eighty-hour counterpart in the nineteenth century. The implicit — but rarely articulated — assumption is that the eighty-hour standard has prevailed for centuries. The comparison conjures up the dreary life of medieval peasants, toiling steadily from dawn to dusk. We are asked to imagine the journeyman artisan in a cold, damp garret, rising even before the sun, laboring by candlelight late into the night.”
These images are backward projections of modern work patterns. And they are false. Before capitalism, most people did not work very long hours at all. The tempo of life was slow, even leisurely; the pace of work relaxed. Our ancestors may not have been rich, but they had an abundance of leisure. When capitalism raised their incomes, it also took away their time. Indeed, there is good reason to believe that working hours in the mid-nineteenth century constitute the most prodigious work effort in the entire history of humankind.”
Teddy Roosevelt & Henry Ford advocated for, and the latter implemented, the 8 hour day.
Today in 2023, some 263 years after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, workers are more grossly exploited by the oligarchic class than workers prior to the 19th century.
Today, despite our enormous technological advancements and increased efficiency, we spend half—or more—of our waking hours enriching the lives of those more fortunate than us. Workers sow the vast majority of profits that Owners reap.
The Fair Labors and Standards Act of 1938 went into affect 85 years ago—at that time only enforcing the 40 hour work week to ~20% of the workforce. Within that time, “Productivity has grown 3.5 times as much as pay for the typical worker.
Now, when “Rent is Too Damn High”, when “60% of Americans Can’t Afford Groceries”, when “most students can’t afford cost of 4-year or 2-year colleges”, and when almost 25% of Americans are illiterate, it’s time we Fight for 5.5.
The “8 for sleep, 8 for work, and 8 for recreation” is no longer enough. Assuming 8 hours of sleep per day, 5.5 working hours per day gives workers back more freedom. It reduces the Owners’ share to exploit us from 50% of our waking ours to just above 1/3rd. It would provide workers 12.5 more hours each week so they may moreso enjoy their right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
I’ll fight for 5.5, will you?