Does the 40-Hour Work Week Need Overhauling?

Here's to Working Efficiently in Only 20 Hours a Week

Aug 15, 2008 Deborah S. Hildebrand

Ever think that working 40 or more hours per week is more a habit than a need? Maybe it's time to reconsider if it's really necessary.

Ever wonder why Americans work a 40-hour work week? Why not 45 or, better yet, 35 hours a week? Is 40 some magical number that somehow allows employees to perform at their best while they provide their employers with the right amount of dedication and output? Maybe it’s time the Americans catch up with the Europeans who work an average of 300 less hours per year than Americans.

Truth is it all came about with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 when the federal government determined that the sweat shops and poor working conditions that required employees to toil away as much as 60 hours a week for low wages required overhauling. Initially that meant implementing a law that created 44-hour maximum work weeks and a $0.25 per hour minimum wage. However, seven years later that was changed to a 40-hour maximum work week and a $.40 per hour minimum wage. And although the federal minimum wage has managed to increase over the last 70 years, the typical 40-hour work week in America hasn’t changed.

The problem is that the average working class stiff doesn’t generally put in only 40 hours a week. In fact, according to a 2004 survey by Expedia.com, 63 percent of American workers spend more than 40 hours on the job and as much as 40 percent exceed 50 hours a week. So what’s the benefit of establishing a 40-hour work week if employees always work more?

Naturally there is a benefit to limiting the number of hours employees work each week. From a health standpoint, research has shown that juggling too many work and personal commitments can cause stress and a breakdown in emotional and physical well being leading to things such as exhaustion, anxiety, depression, and headaches, just to name a few. Work/life balance has been an ongoing issue for most workers for years. Not to mention the impact on the global environment if there are fewer commuters on the road. In addition, establishing a maximum number of hours employees should work each week provides a guideline for overtime pay and at the very least compensates non-exempt workers from working so many extended hours.

On the other hand, business owners and executives would probably resist any kind of drastic change claiming that if the weekly work hours decline too far America runs the risk of not being able to produce a sufficient quantity of products, causing not only instability in the company, but in the marketplace as well. Like it or not, however, as the face of the American worker changes it is likely that so will the 40-hour work week.

In fact, according to a research report that came out in June 2007 as other trappings of the modern workplace have fallen by the wayside, like company-provided pensions and long-term relationships with employers, it won’t be too long before the traditional 40-hour work week disappears, too. Evidence of some of the changes can already be seen in the move toward more flexible work schedules, programs such as ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment) and the increase in the number of teleworkers. After all, isn’t the goal to meet deadlines and organizational commitments in whatever amount of time it takes? So if employees do that by working 20 hours one week and 50 hours the next, aren’t they still meeting their employer’s guidelines?

It’s all about rethinking what has always been the norm. There must have been a time, say in the late 1800s, when factory workers would never have dreamed of working only 40 hours a week and now look at employees. Can the 20-hour work week be far behind?

The copyright of the article Does the 40-Hour Work Week Need Overhauling? in Workplace Culture is owned by Deborah S. Hildebrand. Permission to republish Does the 40-Hour Work Week Need Overhauling? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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