>I don't think the US has a mandated maximum number of hours you can work your employees; if it did a lot of start-ups couldn't exist. Actually, if there were

>I don't think the US has a mandated maximum number of hours you can work your employees; if it did a lot of start-ups couldn't exist. Actually, if there were such laws, no other valley startup could have a competitive advantage of working more hours, so I don't see why any startups couln't exist. The effect of those laws would be to essentially level the playing field, so what matters is the end product, not how much you overwork your employees... It could even make the quality of the end product better --since programmers would afford to pay more attention to detail instead of churning out code exhausted and dazzed from lack of proper sleep.