What Really Is Behind The 40-Hour Week: Slavery

    
Posted by Lukas Magnuson

One of the most common pieces of knowledge and essentially guarantees in life is the idea of a full time job. Full-time jobs often have varying definitions with some being full-time if it is 35 hours a week and others that require 40 hours of work per week. The question that many do not seem to ask is why is it 40 hours a week? Who decided that insurance coverage is only available unless someone has a job that requires at least 40 hours a week? This question and the issue of a 40 hour work week is studied and comes out with quite a fascinating perception to the entire idea of 40 hour work weeks.

Studying 40 Hour Work Weeks

In this reading, they use the term economic slaves to describe the wages as they indicate that economic slavery is best defined as people who rely on wages to maintain their life to the best of their abilities. This has probably perceived as obvious that people need to work to make money, however as time as passed there has been an increased sense of false security that the government and the mass media gives out. They tend to say that people have economic freedom in the 21st century. However, this is technically not true. People are essentially forced to have to take on a 40-hour job that does not pay enough. This doesn't even include the fact that many jobs require people to work overtime, which still is not enough to pay off the bills and many other necessities to live the "American Dream" and enjoy life.

People are essentially working 50-60 hour jobs and are forced to, due to the fact that they are pressured and heavily judged by employees and employers if they do not take on the task of extra work past their hours. Sure it pays more, however there is less leisure time and this technically lowers the amount of economic freedom someone truly has. The average salary in the United States is in the low number of about 22,000, but often have bills for the bare essentials that people leave them with no spare money of their own. This essentially is slavery in that there is not really an accomplishment and breaking even after working hard all week is not really productive. The stress still exists and no one but the companies feel better, but the employees definitely doesn't.

The issue of economic slavery also is prevalent, through trying to better one's life through something like college. Colleges leave students on average with about $20,000 worth of college loans. These often are unsubsidized, which means that interest constantly accrues interest every single year. This increases for several years and the more money stacked in loans the more interest that accrues. These payments can take a decade to pay off, which really puts the term economic freedom into question. Where is the freedom if all millennials are constantly working just to avoid prison or bankruptcy? This is simply legalized slavery. The only people who do not suffer are the elite and select few.

This has lead to the need to increase the hourly wages, however people have continued to fight it. This is a very hard issue to conquer.