40-hour work week may be falling out of fashion
By JJ Feinauer, Deseret News
In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act as part of then president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. As a result, the 40-hour workweek (based on the eight-hour workday) became fully integrated, and legislated, as part of American corporate culture.
CNN Money’s Jeanne Sahadi argues that it may be time for change.
The 40-hour workweek, according to Sahadi, may actually be stunting worker productivity. But not because it stops employees from working more, but because it leads to too many instances of overwork.
According to Sahadi, the notion of a 40-hour workweek is, in general, a myth in the first place. Salaried employees, he argues while citing a Gallup poll from last year, typically work seven hours more than what’s required of them each week, and they feel pressure to work above and beyond the legislated limits.
