Revisiting History: The 30-Hour Workweek Proposal That Nearly Transformed the American Workplace
Washington, D.C. — A groundbreaking proposal once floated the idea of a 30-hour workweek across the United States, a significant shift from the traditional 40-hour standard that could have reshaped worker productivity and wellbeing. Introduced during the Great Depression, this innovative concept aimed to combat unemployment by reducing the hours each employed person worked, thereby creating more jobs for the unemployed. Senator Hugo Black of Alabama, who later became a Supreme Court Justice, was a prominent advocate for this change. He championed a bill in 1933 that proposed limiting the workweek to 30 hours in … Read more