Who invented the five-day workweek?

Henry Ford became one of the inventors of the five-day workweek in 1926, when Ford Motor Company implemented a 40-hour, five-day week for its factory workers. Ford admitted that he expected the policy to make his workers more productive.

Ford's decision inspired many other business owners and industry associations to follow suit. The cotton and textile industry agreed to the five-day workweek and a minimum weekly wage in the 1930s. The five-day workweek was not codified into federal law until 1938, when Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which barred child labor and limited the workweek to a maximum of 44 hours.