Why Is a Workweek 5 Days?
Many Americans structure their lives around a simple schedule: five days of work followed by two days off for leisure, chores, and, if they’re lucky, rest. But the concept of a standard Monday through Friday workweek is a relatively recent development, shaped by decades of activism, industrial shifts, and, eventually, government intervention.
What many of us take for granted today as a normal part of life was once a hard-fought cause. The five-day workweek as we know it emerged gradually from a long — and often contentious — battle for fairer labor rights. Let’s take a look at how it all began.
Industrial Labor Meant Long Hours
For much of human history, labor was dictated by necessity rather than a fixed schedule. Farmers worked according to the seasons, and artisans and merchants worked at their own pace and set their own hours. That all changed with the Industrial Revolution. By the mid-19th century, this sweeping cultural transformation was in full swing, and factory work had replaced farming as the dominant form of labor in the U.S.
Workers in manufacturing and other industrial sectors often clocked 60-plus hours a week across six or seven days; shifts averaged 10 to 12 hours per day but often stretched up to 16 hours, even for children. Conditions were harsh and often unsafe. The Industrial Revolution may have transformed economies, but it also pushed workers to their limits.
You may also like
More from our network
The Push To Shorten the Workday
After the American Civil War, a call for fewer work hours in a day started to gain traction. Early trade unions had been striking for better and safer working conditions across the country for decades. The slogan “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will” had become a frequent sight at protest marches, and groups known as Grand Eight Hours Leagues fought to standardize work hours.
The slogan “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will” had become a frequent sight at protest marches; the idea had originated in the early 1800s with Welsh textile manufacturer and social reformer Robert Owen. He believed that a 24-hour day could and should be split evenly for work, sleep, and life’s other pleasures and leisures. Later, in the U.S., groups known as Grand Eight Hours Leagues fought to standardize work hours for the same reason.
In 1886, the labor movement organized nationwide: On May 1, hundreds of thousands of American workers — still primarily working six-day weeks — walked off the job to demand better wages and a uniform eight-hour workday. Unfortunately, a labor protest at Haymarket Square in Chicago — a hotbed of U.S. labor rights activity at the time — turned deadly, after which the growing labor movement was maligned and derailed.
World War I Reignited the Cause
There wasn’t another major shift in workers’ rights until the U.S. entered World War I. With a significant labor shortage on the home front, existing workers felt empowered to advocate for reduced hours and shorter workweeks. President Woodrow Wilson established the National War Labor Board, and a widespread implementation of the eight-hour workday began to take hold. Despite a postwar attempt by industrialists to roll back advancements, in 1919, about 4 million workers — or one-fifth of the country’s workforce — went on strike in opposition. Wartime labor reforms had permanently altered America’s employment landscape.
Two-Day Weekends Became Standard
By the 1920s, the eight-hour workday had gained significant traction, and the reality of a standard five-day workweek wasn’t far off. In England, factories had introduced a half-day off on Saturdays as early as the 1850s. This stemmed from “Saint Monday,” a long-running tradition in which workers spent their standard Sunday off imbibing rather than resting and habitually skipped work on Mondays to recover — the half-day on Saturday was offered in exchange for reliable Monday attendance. In the U.S., however, the shift to a two-day weekend didn’t begin until the early 1900s, when a New England mill adopted a five-day workweek to accommodate Jewish workers observing the Saturday Sabbath. Sunday had already been a widely observed day of rest since the early 19th century, due in large part to the efforts of Christian Sabbatarians (who observe the Sabbath on Saturday instead of Sunday). Soon, some factories were closing on both Saturdays and Sundays to accommodate their workers’ religious beliefs.
Industrialist Henry Ford and his Ford Motor Company were also influential in making the two-day weekend standard in America. In 1926, the company officially adopted a five-day, 40-hour workweek; it had experimented with a five-day week as early as 1922, and had reduced daily work from nine hours to eight hours in 1914. Henry Ford’s decision wasn’t purely altruistic: He thought that giving workers more money and more free time would encourage them to buy more goods — including, of course, his company’s cars. The idea gained momentum.
