I grew up knowing that the work week was 40 hours and that after you worked 40 hours you got overtime pay. Then I joined the Navy and they didn't care about that rule.
Today is the 71st. anniversary of the law that established the 40 hour work week. Sometimes when we harp about the government interfering with business we forget what caused the interfering. In the desire to get every last penny of profit for their company employees were forced to work very long hours six days a week.
In the past seventy one years human life expectancy has doubled. While there are other factors that contribute to that fact I believe that there is a connection to the enforced shorter work week.
With the economy today some people are working for lower wages and working two thirty-two hour jobs just to keep up.
Happy Anniversay
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But have you noticed that salaried employment is becoming more common? I'm wondering if it is so they can work us more than 40 hours a week and not have to pay overtime?
ReplyDeleteA connection between the 40 hour work week and longer life? No doubt!
S
This is why I get nervous when Grover Norquist says he wants to shrink the federal government down to the size where he can drown it in a bathtub. Corporations are so big that they can do pretty much as they please, without concern about the harm they are doing to individual employees or the harm they are doing to the environment, such as dumping stuff (such as run-off from the chicken farm) into the river or removing the top of a mountain to get to the coal. You need a counterbalance to a big corporation's concern for profit, profit, profit.
ReplyDeleteNot only is salaried becoming more common but also cutting people to 32 hours a week so that do not get benefits and them often work them extra or off the clock.
ReplyDeleteHow many people take work home with them?