About Quizzes

The Ten Hour Day

The ten-hour day became the established norm among artisans in the 1830s, but factory workers did not enjoy this protection until the next decade. The first ten-hour law was passed in 1847 by the New Hampshire legislature, but it included a provision whereby individual workers could contract for longer hours, which made the law ineffective. As late as 1922, an analysis of labor practices at United States Steel showed that 26.5% of workers were doing twelve-hour shifts.