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The eight-hour work day had its origins during the Industrial Revolution, when workers were accustomed to 10 to 16 hours of labor each day, six days a week. Children included. The slogan "Eights hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest" would emerge from Britain in 1817, but it would not be until 1937 that the U.S. Congress would enact the Fair Labor Standards Act, calling for certain industries to establish a maximum work week of 44 hours, with overtime pay provided for employees working beyond 40 hours per week. Throughout those 120 years and in a piecemeal fashion, state by state, city by city, and union by union, organized trades rallied, paraded and demonstrated for the eight hour day. When Ford Motor Company doubled its pay to $5.00 a day and cut their working shifts to eight hours in 1914, they saw their profits double in a two-year period. Other auto manufacturers followed suit. The American labor union movement that supported the eight hour day honors the economic and social achievements of all workers on Labor Day, the first of which was celebrated in 1882. It became a federal holiday in 1894.

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