Ah the 40 hour work week don't you just love it? Work 5 days a week, overtime on weekends and at the end of it have little to no time for yourself, family or really any vacation. The USA still has it all wrong and people are waking up to it and honestly they are RIGHT in my opinion.

Today I'm going to take a look into the 40 hour work week in the USA and go over how it all started, what's changed and were we find ourselves today.

Personally I believe we are due for change and a good part of the reason for that is because a vast majority of jobs if not all jobs are more automated now then ever including the recent boon of AI which is only going to fuel this faster now.

Where Did The 40 Hour Work Week Come From?

Who decided that a work week should be 40 hours and that it should be 5 days a week with weekends being overpay.

1940 the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) was signed which took a 44 hour work week to a 40 hour work week. It was also decided at this time to have a two day weekend, overtime pay and what it meant to be full time employed and part time employed.

This was purely based by factoring in the economic conditions of the time and the productivity of a person.

Fast forward to 2024 and you can bet ya that not only have economic conditions change but the productivity of a person has DRASTICLY changed.

What's Changed Since

1940's to today looks like a whole new world of which much of that tech has just come in the last 40-50 of those years.

Things like automation, mech (Cars, Trucks, Planes, Jets, Rockets etc), Computers, Internet and now AI. This pushed a huge productivity growth over the years where a single person now compared to 1940 when this was passed can make nearly 500% MORE stuff compared to that time.

Yet all we have seen for many years this isn't just recent is a drastic fall in wages, companies richer, the loss of pensions, 401ks which were suppose to be a short term temp solution, longer work weeks often well over 40 hours with salary jobs, many people having to work more than one job.

This Results In Two Things

There's two things that should happen in this case of which NEITHER has and after decades of this going on people have become sick of it and the covid lock downs and layoffs was a big wake up call for many.

Option 1: You can work less hours because your productivity is way up. However this never seems to be the case. But let me tell you if you own a business like really own one or work for yourself in a smart way you can often get away with only working a few hours a day because of the massive amount of productivity boost you have at your fingertips. You just need to know how to use it and use it in the right away.

Option 2: You get paid more money because productivity is up. However this has actully not been the case and wages have only fallen while we see massive companies hoard in billions and in some cases trillions of dollars.

A Shift

I would say Hive for example is part of that shift. A shift where you have the ability to work from home to some extent and earn from it. The knowledge and information you have is valuable. Things like setting up a node, how to code, using ai, investing etc. are all productivity and income boosters which allow you to trade less time for more money allowing you to slip away from that 40 hour work week.

I only see this trend growing now and the possibilities only getting larger. One of those core areas will be known as AI agents and if you really want to boost your productivity then this is where I believe you need to focus your time and effort.