1936-the standard work week has an interesting past. if you work from a time-line point of view, you will see that the work week fluctuated substantially throughout history. for instance, in the 4th century a.d., the roman empire had a whopping 175 holidays in a year, something workers of today would love.in the middle ages, people were obligated to work eight hours a day, six days a week, excluding holidays. a saying from king alfred the great of england was eight hours work, eight hours sleep, eight hours play, make just and healthy day.as time moved on, the work schedules actually increased a bit, especially in the united states. in around the year 1800, a 14-hour work day was customary in the u.s. for men, women and children. this was largely due to the industrial revolution. then in 1840, president martin van buren issued an executive order that laborers and mechanics be limited to working 10 hours in a day.but it wasnt until the international labor organization held its first conference in oct. 1919 that hours of work convention established an 8- or 9-hour work day, which constituted a max of 48 hours worked per week.just as the work week seemed to settle, the great depression hit. in an effort to avoid layoffs, president herbert hoover proposed a bill that would reduce the work week to 30 hours. it passed in senate; however, it didnt make it through the house.when franklin d. roosevelt entered office, he tried to push again for shorter hours, but they were overruled by the u.s. supreme court. instead, the walsh-healy public contracts act of 1936 passed, which required the federal government to pay its contractors overtime wages after eight hours of work in a day. and then the fair labor standards act of 1938 passed, which established the five-day, 40-hour work week for everyone, a standard we observe today.
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