# Is a 40 hour work week normal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474 "2022-04-07T19:08:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/1 "2022-04-07T19:08:34Z")
How many Americans truly have a standard M-F 40 hour work week, or at least work the same five days out of seven? I mean they never have to do overtime, they’re not expected to check their email at night, and they most definitely don’t need to check it while on vacation. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/2 "2022-04-07T19:19:45Z")
This older (2014) survey by Gallup, among Americans who were employed “full time,” says that only 42% of them report working 40 hours a week. It doesn’t answer the rest of your question, however, as it doesn’t address whether that’s actually 9-5, M-F. > **[The "40-Hour" Workweek Is Actually Longer -- by Seven Hours](https://news.gallup.com/poll/175286/hour-workweek-actually-longer-seven-hours.aspx)** > > Adults employed full time in the U.S. report working an average of 47 hours a week, almost a full workday longer than what a standard five-day, 9-to-5 schedule entails. Workers paid a salary log a few more hours each week than those paid hourly. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/3 "2022-04-07T21:45:38Z")
I’m not sure how “never do overtime” fits in here, because the very concept of “overtime” is inherently based on 40 hours being “normal”. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/4 "2022-04-07T22:17:00Z")
By “overtime” I don’t mean any legal definition. I just mean sometimes working more than 8 hours on a given day. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/5 "2022-04-07T22:20:59Z")
I work 40 hours a week. 4 days a week. 10 hours a day. There is a little variation, every now and then I work a little longer one day and balance it out with a shorter day, but those are rare. Just don’t forget, 40 hours a week does not always mean 5 8-hour days. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/6 "2022-04-07T22:57:31Z")
When my wife was a Nursery Nurse, she worked a 37½ hour week - five eight hour days but with half an hour deducted for lunch. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/7 "2022-04-07T23:04:01Z")
I have an 8.5 hour work day most days, with an unpaid 1/2 hour lunch so 8 hours on the clock. I work 5 days a week (most weeks) for 40 paid hours. I get 2 days off per week, but which 5 days I work and which 2 I have off move around a bit. It’s not 9 to 5 - it’s either 5 am - 1:30 pm or 7am to 3:30 pm - but the hours are pretty consistent. I do not have to ever check e-mail outside of work hours, or on vacation. In fact, most work days I don’t even have to check it during work although I do have work e-mail. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/8 "2022-04-08T00:00:57Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > How many Americans truly have a standard M-F 40 hour work week, or at least work the same five days out of seven? I mean they never have to do overtime, they’re not expected to check their email at night, and they most definitely don’t need to check it while on vacation. There are several million people who work evening shift and/or weekends, and yet never have to check their email after work (and probably don’t even have work email). Do those people have a standard 40-hr work week? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/9 "2022-04-08T00:04:41Z")
Some of us do. (See my prior post). ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/10 "2022-04-08T01:13:49Z")
If 9 to 5 includes a lunch break, it’s not technically 40 hours of working. Based on that, in my experience at various offices the typical workday is 8:30 to 5:30, with an hour for lunch. While that might be considered working 40 hours, when you consider how many people stay at the office for lunch, or even work through lunch, I’d say that 45 hours is now a typical work week. But that’s for staff. I’m on salary, and am technically always supposed to be available by phone or email. The trade off is that I’m not expected to be in the office at any particular time, although it would certainly be noticed if I was to cut out early all the time or was out of the office for no particular reason. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/11 "2022-04-08T01:26:52Z")
Currently WFH my schedule is 8-5 with an hour unpaid lunch. When I was in the travel phase of my contract 10 hours OT was baked into the schedule and requests for 20 were generally rubber stamped. More than 20 got into extraordinary rendition territory pretty quick though. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/12 "2022-04-08T02:00:44Z")
I’ve always worked salaried jobs in tech, and my hours were generally until my work was done. That has ranged from slow times where I only worked 30 or so hours to crunch times at startups when we all worked 60+ hours. Many places had comp time so we could reclaim some of that, but at the startups you never got all the hours back. Several of my job had official on call times. Others you could always be called in an emergency. Once job had regular system upgrades at 3:00 AM that I had to be online, but not there in person. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@epbrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/13 "2022-04-08T04:19:38Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > I mean they never have to do overtime, they’re not expected to check their email at night, and they most definitely don’t need to check it while on vacation. I don’t think that’s a fair standard. I’m a level one nobody at Amazon and I get gobs of texts and e-mails while I’m off. They’re work-related but they aren’t work themselves (notices about Covid-19 cases, weather closings, available OT, available time off, blah, blah). And I get 3 copies of each because they use English, Spanish, and Nepali (and a small group is pushing to add French). Doesn’t mean I have to drop everything and work on the Speckerman presentation for the boss or anything. I’d say most jobs outside the service and health industries are 40/week the majority of the time, though that’s changing with companies offering flexible schedules as a benefit. And most are going to require some overtime for busy periods, crises, shortages. It shouldn’t be an issue unless it’s chronic. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/14 "2022-04-08T10:51:08Z")
I used to work 7 - 3:30. Office job. Now working from home I work more like 7 - 5. But I will take a two hour lunch or do other errands for myself during the day. I’ll sometimes work some on the weekends to perform system maintenance, but then I just adjust my hours during the week. It’s very, very flexible. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/15 "2022-04-08T15:20:29Z")
I’ve been a software engineer for well more than a decade for 3 different companies and have been asked to work overtime once, and that was like 4 hours over a week and they even paid me extra. Otherwise I’ve always worked a 40 hour week and mostly set my own hours. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/16 "2022-04-08T15:45:41Z")
I asked something similar (I think) a few months ago. Well, not exactly the same but it got into how work time is counted per week (or whatever). It did not answer how many people work a 40 hour work week. Interesting answers though and it seems it can get complex: > [@Overtime pay for hourly workers...is it 40 hours per week or can an employer mess with the calculation (60 hours one week, 0 hours the next week)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overtime-pay-for-hourly-workers-is-it-40-hours-per-week-or-can-an-employer-mess-with-the-calculation-60-hours-one-week-0-hours-the-next-week/957251): > > The title basically lays it out. Some workers, such as oil rig divers, may need to work for 100% of the time being stuck a few hundred feet under water. But, then they are given a month (or more) off. If they are hourly employees do they get overtime for the way more than 40 hours per week they work while on the job or can the employer say that, over some time like a month, they are working less than 40 hours per week? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/17 "2022-04-08T15:52:05Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Several of my job had official on call times. Others you could always be called in an emergency. Once job had regular system upgrades at 3:00 AM that I had to be online, but not there in person. One of my jobs many years ago was as tech support for a medical software company. We had something called a “hot phone” that was passed around. Every week, on a schedule, it was someone’s turn to have the hot phone. It was a cell phone that was on all night, and if it rang, you answered. It was only to be used for emergencies from customers. We got paid extra, I can’t remember how much, but for being on-call 24 hours a day you made some percentage of your pay for all of those hours you were off work for the week. If you were really lucky (I never was), you’d get through the week without a single call and make a good amount of extra money. Getting woken up at 2 AM to try to help a frantic person with really poor English was not a great time, though. That job really sucked. I also had to go into work the first time the Seahawks ever made it to a Super Bowl, which was awful for someone who grew up a fan. (Though considering what happened, missing that game was probably a blessing.) ---
**Author:** ![a6ka97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/18 "2022-04-08T16:04:50Z")
For many years my job was 4, 10 hour days with paid breaks/lunch unless you left the property. During Covid it has been 5-6 10 hour days. Supply chain issues, people (were) out with Covid, and the big one, the current problem is unable to get people to work, so staffing issues. I could go off on a political rant about entitlements and resulting worker shortages but I won’t. They keep saying things we be back to normal in 2 months but those 2 months have passed several times. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/19 "2022-04-08T16:53:21Z")
It seems people are working: > **[Jobless claims tumble to 166,000, lowest level since 1968](https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/initial-jobless-claims-coronavirus-april-2)** > > The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week tumbled to the lowest level in more than half a century, the latest evidence of an increasingly tight labor market. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474/20 "2022-04-08T17:22:06Z")
Technically I do. I have to account for 40 hours each week though I have a significant amount of latitude in how I do that, notwithstanding the timings of meetings etc. So for example, pre-Covid I would often leave the building at 2 or 3 pm and go for a long detour of a bike ride to get home, and then put in a couple of hours in the evening at home. And depending on the project cycle I sometimes have to be a bit inventive to fill those 40 hours but then there are other times when I’m swamped with overtime. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-40-hour-work-week-normal/962474.md?page=2)