Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategic CSR

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Strategic CSR - 40-hour workweek

The article in the url below charts the development of the 40-hour workweek in the U.S. As the author argues, while the story of its evolution is interesting, it is more interesting that something we take for granted today is a relatively recent innovation. In spite of some industry-specific legislation, along with experiments by companies such as Ford, the norm for workers in the early 20th Century remained long hours and a six-day week -- a situation that only really changed with The Great Depression:

"Amid mass unemployment, a bipartisan consensus developed in Washington around work sharing: more people working shorter hours. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law. It set a minimum wage of 25 cents an hour and a standard workweek of 44 hours initially, reduced to 40 hours by 1940, with anybody who worked longer hours being entitled to time-and-a-half overtime pay."

This idea spread after the end of WWII:

"In postwar America, the 40-hour week became the norm for millions of workers, with overtime pay acting as a disincentive for employers to require longer hours."

Having won this progress, the author argues that the U.S. worker is now voluntarily surrendering it. Starting in the 1970s, the average workweek has increased in length, and all in the name of individual freedom:

"In the new millennium, the U.S. workweek varies widely for different kinds of workers. Email and the internet, laptops and smartphones, and tools like Zoom and Slack have liberated many office workers from the physical office, but at the cost of an increasingly porous boundary between work and home life."

In other words, you can work whenever you like, as long as it is most of the time:

"A 2025 Gallup poll found that 40% of full-time employees work 40 hours in a typical week, while 38% work from 41 to 59 and 15% work more than 60 hours a week. Only 8% work less than 40 hours."

But, as some begin to question whether the level of productivity is correlated positively with the quantity of hours worked, a few companies are experimenting with a 4-day week (see Strategic CSR — 4-day workweek and Strategic CSR — Microsoft). The research on this so far suggests there are real benefits for organizations:

"Employers participating in the trial saw improvements in employee retention, with resignations falling from 1.8 a month before implementing the four-day week to 1.4 a month afterward. Sick and personal days declined from one day per employee a month to 0.8."

There are also benefits for workers:

"For employees, meanwhile, the main benefits were in well-being and work-life balance. … For example, 69% of participants experienced reduced burnout, nearly 40% were less stressed and anxious, 42% reported better mental health, and 37% percent saw improvements in physical health."

The latest twist in the story is the evolution of A.I, of course, which promises to reduce the amount of total work needed. But, it is unclear to the author if that promise will ever be realized, and whether whatever the new norm becomes will be beneficial for workers:

“… it’s not a foregone conclusion that the productivity gains from AI will usher in the age of 15-hour workweeks and abundant leisure time predicted somewhat prematurely by John Maynard Keynes back in 1930."

Take care

David

David Chandler

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Sustainable Value Creation (6e)

Instructor Teaching and Student Study Site: https://study.sagepub.com/chandler6e

Strategic CSR Simulation: http://www.strategiccsrsim.com/

The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: https://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/

How Did We Get A 40-hour Workweek?

By Andrew Blackman

December 1, 2025

The Wall Street Journal Report: The Business of Work

Late Edition – Final