The eight-hour workday was started back in 19-century socialism when there was no limit to the amount of work that companies could demand of factory workers. American labor unions fought hard to instill a 40-hour workweek to cut down on the number of hours of manual labor that workers were forced to endure.
Welsh textile mill owner and social reformer Robert Owen summarized it as, “eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, and eight hours rest”.
Over the next 100 years or so, labor unions around the world pushed for the eight-hour standard and in 1926, Henry Ford brought the idea further into the mainstream by mandating a five-day, 40-hour workweek in his company’s factories. In 1940, Congress finally set the American workweek at 40 hours and the rest as they say is history.
The problem is, so much has changed since then and there have been countless essays written and studies conducted over the years that argue the five-day-eight-hour workweek is an outdated and ineffective approach to work.
Today, the discussion centers around the possibility of a further cut in the workweek, and according to Maru, 79% of Canadians are willing to work for four days (averaging 10 hours a day) and do it for the same amount of pay they’re currently receiving.
The highest numbers of full-time workers who want this change are located in Manitoba and Saskatchewan (83%) followed by Ontario (82%), Alberta (81%), Atlantic Canada (77%), British Columbia (75%), and Québec (74%).
The survey also found that workers in the highest income bracket ($100,000 + salary) are the most open to this switch at 88%.
The survey was conducted between January 25 and 26, 2021, by Maru/Blue of 1518 randomly selected Canadian adults who are Maru Voice Canada online panelists.
Via The Daily Hive