If you have a global market and somebody can produce this cheaper than you it doesn't matter what a local government/union or an owner will mandate. The market

If you have a global market and somebody can produce this cheaper than you it doesn't matter what a local government/union or an owner will mandate. The market will decide that. The 8-hour work day was possible in the British Empire, because it's an island with a lot of technology making their product at the time the cheapest and highest quality with great productivity per worker. Yes, unions helped with redistributing part of the profits to them with better conditions. That was good back then. Now, no such technological/productivity divide exist. Look what happened to US steel industry or auto industry. Global competition killed them. All wages are paid from the profit the company makes. If the company can't compete on the market no jobs for anyone. If you own the local power utility and power can't be easily imported/produced, you'd be able to pay higher wages and afford unions. Now if you build a SAAS business and pay 140K/yr to your programmer and your competitor pays 14K/yr for the same programmer in Bangladesh, who would survive? The 8-hour work day and even 4-hour work day are possible (as some government bureaucrats know) if you don't compete in the market. If you do, the profit will go to the person doing it for less. So technology is the only way forward. BTW, that is the way market economies allocate resources much more efficiently than centralized organizations. Brutal, but efficient. And for people this might mean cheap Chinese phones, but no job sadly. That's why it might be better to become a plumber than a react JS developer longer term. The big google profits are not forever and investors money will end someday.