http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-factory-workers-get-40-hour-week http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-factory-work... In short, Ford

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-factory-workers-get-40-hour-week http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-factory-work... In short, Ford likely realized in the 1920s that with the usage of mass manufacturing / shifts, worker effort was more important than hours spent working, and could afford to make the change. This eventually became codified in the US via the Fair Labor Standard Act of 1938 [1], which defined overtime as anything over 40 hours a week. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act_of_1938 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Labor_Standards_Act_of_...