On Mon, June 9, 1997 at 08:24:38 (-0700) Doug Henwood writes:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>>Most unions were formed when people were working six
>>days a week, 10-12 hours a day.
>
>This is an interesting point. Joel Rogers explains the marketing-inspired
>nature of the New Party's platform and organizational stragegy ("pick a few
>simple points, four or five, stay on message, etc.") as a response to the
>fact that people today work too much and don't have the time for
>"traditional" politics. But I'd guess that it'd be hard to find too many
>people working 60-72 hour weeks in 1997.
Just curious, what is the average/median work week in the U.S. today?
Juliet Schor's _The Overworked American_ claims that compared to 20
years ago, Americans were (in 1987) working about an extra month out
of the year. Including domestic labor, she calculates the total
annual hours worked by labor force participants. The total weekly
hours for all participants averages about 55 hours a week. Excluding
domestic labor, she calculates about 37.5 market hours per week of
labor for all participants.
Also, commuting time is not included in the labor figures. Is it
possible that commuting times have risen drastically since the time of
original union formation, perhaps pushing the 55 hour per week figure
upward if those hours are included?
Bill
