1869: President Ulysses S. Grant issues a proclamation that guarantees an eight-hour workday without a decrease in pay. But it only applied to government workers.
1880s to early 1900s: The movement to reduce a worker’s standard hours continues to grow. In 1898 the United Mine Workers win an eight-hour day. By 1905, the eight-hour workday was common practice in the printing industry.
1926: Ford Motor issues a five-day, 40-hour workweek for its workers in a newsworthy move by founder and business titan Henry Ford. In a statement, Ford writes, “It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either lost time or a class privilege.”
1937: Auto workers from General Motors strike at a plant in Flint, Michigan, protesting working conditions. Negotiations between GM and the workers ultimately help reduce worker hours.
1938: Political pressure continues to mount. On June 25, Congress passes the Fair Labor Standards Act, which limits the workweek to 44 hours, or 8.8 hours per day.
1940: On June 26, Congress amends the Fair Labor Standards Act, further limiting the workweek to 40 hours. A few months later, on October 24, the law goes into effect…
…
71 years. It took 71 years for the 8 hour work day to “trickle down” to the general population.
It has now been 83 years (since the 1940 FLSA) and our work days are still just as long… if not even longer with the amount of overtime required just to make ends meet. What the actual fuck?
(Source for all of the above)
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/03/how-the-8-hour-workday-changed-how-americans-work.html