The 8-Hour Workday Debunked: Who Really Set Your Hours

Why do we work 8 hours a day? The 8-hour workday wasn’t backed by science or chosen for workers’ health. It started as a slogan, and it only took hold in America once it made Henry Ford money.

In this episode of Lies We Bought, the Signal Award-winning marketing history podcast, Emily Rask uncovers the real history of the 9 to 5. She follows the 8-hour day from a Welsh mill owner’s 1817 slogan to the 1886 Chicago strike that gave the world May Day, Ford’s famous $5 day, Kellogg’s forgotten 6-hour shifts and the law that set the 40-hour work week. Then she breaks down the marketing behind it: how a raise got branded as a gift, why 9 to 5 feels like the default, and whether school trains kids for the time clock. Finally, she puts the biggest 4-day workweek study yet to the test to see if 8 hours was ever the magic number.

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