In 1833, the British government passed the Factory Act, specifically addressing conditions for children employed at factories at the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Incredibly, this Act which was an improvement upon what came before, mandated that children 9-13 years of age could work no more than nine hours a day, and that children of 13-18 years of age, could work no more than twelve hours a day, of which, the passage of these laws, were proof positive of the ruthless exploitation of children, especially considering that this Act was a material improvement on the previous policies of pretty much letting factories do whatever that they so desired with child labor.
In fact, today's forty hour labor week, only became the norm in the 20th century, whereas previously throughout most of history, workers labored from sunup until sundown, with perhaps, the Sabbath off. Even then, before forty hours became the norm and thereby the law of the country, it was a long arduous process getting there, something that today's workers, for the most part, are blithely unaware of. It was not until 1938, when the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed by Congress, that the forty hour labor week became the law, but even then, there had to be many amendments over the years before such a law, was essentially in effect for everyone.
Yet, today, despite there being laws on the books which ostensibly are fair for all, there are exceptions to those laws, which invariably favor the employer as opposed to the employed. For instance, though there are Federal as well as State mandated minimum wage laws, there are exceptions to those laws, which allows employers, if they so choose, to pay less than the minimum wage such as for tipped employees who earn just $2.13/hour, under the theory that their shortfall in wages will be made up by tips by patrons of such restaurants. So too, to get around paying overtime for employees that work more than eight hours in a given day, employers can opt to use the weekly overtime standard, and if that employee does not exceed 40 hours in that work week, even though they exceeded eight hours on a given day of work, they will not receive overtime pay. Then too, some employers don't even have to pay a holiday premium for work done on common holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even, gosh, Labor Day, as again there are exemptions to this rule.
This then means that companies such as Walmart, the largest non-government employer in America, can take their long standing policy of paying an extra $1/hour for Sunday workers and simply eliminate it, because they have the right and option to do so. All of the above, really comes down to the fact, that individuals do not have a lot of power or influence upon their working conditions, their working hours, their schedule, their working pay, their working overtime, or their working benefits, because the laws on the books are often circumvented or corrupted, and all of this mainly because most employees are not unionized, leaving them to fight the good fight, alone.
The Federal minimum wage has not risen since 2009, and according to the National Employment Law Project, "42.4 percent of American workers currently make less than $15 an hour," of which, $15/hour is considered to be a reasonable living wage for most areas of the country. Also, as reported by shmoop.com, "In 1945, union membership peaked at 35% of non-agricultural workers," whereas today, "only 12% of all workers are union members." This does clearly indicate, that the most powerful forces in legislative law, in government, and in employment, made it their purpose to do whatever it took to reduce their labor expenditures by all means, fair or foul, and have been incredibly successful at it, for America today, for the average laborer, has lost significant ground, despite the rise of the collective wealth of this great nation.