Abstract

The Twenty-Year Work Span

In 1800, the average workweek in industrial establishments was 84 hours; in 1900, it was 60 hours; in 1925, 50 hours; in 1950, 40 hours. Today many offices work a 35-hour week; a few labor contracts have workweeks as low as 30; and a 25-hour week was recently negotiated by the Electrical Workers in New York City, New York. In view of this consistent trend, the possibility of the 20-hour week must be taken seriously. There is a ranging debate over the causes, as well as the wisdom, of these declining work hours. Labor has demanded shorter hours without reduced pay as one way of participating in the increased productivity made possible by mechanization and more recently, automation. The article proposes a 20-year work life. This method of distributing leisure is not applicable to all jobs. The point is not to urge this plan as a panacea, but rather to stimulate consideration of alternatives to the shorter workweek when looking for ways to distribute the troublesome bonanza of increasing leisure.