The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was amended in 1940, of which, that act in 1940, thus established the forty hour work week as the standard for American workers; thereby providing for those laboring more than forty hours in one week, with time and a half as their compensation for their standard overtime hourly pay if such should occur. Additionally, through that act, child labor, with some notable exceptions was outlawed, and also an hourly minimum wage was thereby established for employees. The establishment of the Fair Standards Act during the FDR administration was probably the most constructive legislation ever passed for the benefit of the common laboring employee. Yet, the forty hour work week as the established standard, has not been successfully reduced per Federal law, in over eighty years; despite all of the progress so having been made with machines, robotics, computers, and the like.
Perhaps, the forty hour workweek is the type of norm, that should not ever be challenged, and therefore ought never to change; but in a world in which humankind has demonstrated its mastery over the elements, time and time again, it would seem that a nation that is actually progressing would at some point, reach the stage in which the labor so being required from a given individual, would not necessitate a continuous commitment of forty hours, week in and week out. That is to say, the Fair Labor Standard Act was established in which previously employees were often required to work six days a week, of which each day would consist of eight hours or possibly more of labor; yet, when this was changed to legally reduce such to forty hours a week, unless the employee was compensated with overtime pay, the American enterprise world or the progression, so of, did not come to an end.
In our modern society, we understand well that there needs to be a good balance between work and leisure; or between work and other commitments, or between work and other activities of interest. In other words, to believe that the primary purpose of life is to work, seems to put the cart before the horse; because often the main reason why a person works, is to earn the necessary funds so as to enjoy in their spare time, the accouterments and other preferred interests of life; of which, many a person desires strongly to have more free time to address not only their responsibilities in life, but also to experience an overall better life.
American prides itself on believing that it is the world leader and thereby the epitome of what a great country so represents; but when it comes to the amount of labor hours that each person must devote each week in order to get some semblance of a good life, or to at least pay the bills of that life; America has not been making much good progress, at all. That is why it is so important for this Federal government, to acknowledge that those that labor so hard, are deserving of a fair deal, updated to the present time, and of which, as part of that fair deal, there would be the reduction of the standard work week from the current forty hours, to thirty-five hours or possibly even just thirty-two. Most people would call that progress – which is what the Fair Labor Standards Act so aptly has represented historically for the American laborer.