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1932 › Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) › Working hours and labor standards
Spread employment by substantially reducing hours of labor, starting in government service
pledge_forwarddirectional_stancecandidate_directevidence A Labor & EmploymentRelief, Welfare & Social Insurance⚡ The Great Depression similar solutions · similar reasoning
Solution
Substantial reduction in the hours of labor and encouragement of the shorter week, applying the principle first in government service; "definite steps to shorten the working day and the working week."
Rationale
Spreads available work across more workers during mass unemployment.
Statements (5)
We advocate the spread of employment by a substantial reduction in the hours of labor, the encouragement of the shorter week by applying that principle in government service
That admirable document, the platform which you have adopted, is clear. I accept it 100 percent.
Blanket endorsement of every plank.
we must take definite steps to shorten the working day and the working week.
In addition to all this, there has been long overdue a reduction of the hours of work and a reduction of the number of working days per week.
That means that Government itself must set an example in the case of its own employees. It means also that Government must exert its persuasive leadership to induce industry to do likewise.
Follow-through
kept
NRA codes imposed maximum hours (typically 40) across industry from mid-1933 until Schechter voided them in May 1935; the Walsh-Healey Act (1936) set hours on government contracts; the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) made the 40-hour week permanent law.
Mechanisms
| Date | Type | Name | Effect | Consistent? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1933-06-16 | statute | National Industrial Recovery Act — code hours | My FIRST request is that the Congress provide for the machinery necessary for a great cooperative movement throughout all industry in order to obtain wide reemployment, to shorten the working week, to pay a decent wage for the shorter week and to prevent unfair competition and disastrous overproduction. | yes | Message to Congress Recommending Enactment of the National Industrial Recovery Act. |
Obstruction
courts Schechter (1935) interrupted the code system until the FLSA (1938). source
Assessments
Codes regulated hours until the Court struck the NIRA; the policy was re-enacted later.
In the May 1935 Schechter decision, the Court invalidated the NIRA on the grounds that Congress had improperly delegated its powers to the Executive and that it unconstitutionally interfered with intra-state commerce.
Other positions on this issue
- The six-hour day and five-day week without reduction in wages — Norman Thomas, 1932 specific_pledge
- Revive the NRA's principles 'by one device or another' (imputed; the President would not say) — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 directional_stance
- Shorter hours, higher wages, end child labor and sweatshops — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 directional_stance
1932-fdr-shorter-hours · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed