How Long Did Canadian Workers Actually Work? The Struggle for a Shorter Work Week and Workers’ Standards of Living Before the Great Depression

Morris Altman ()

Chapter Chapter 12 in Lessons from a Successfully Export-Oriented, Resource-Rich Economy, 2022, pp 361-387 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The first set of hours of work estimates constructed for Canada and its regions for the 1880–1930 period is presented in this chapter. These estimates suggest a trend decline in hours of work, especially following First World War. In addition, these estimates suggest that the decline in hours of work came at no or little cost in terms of real weekly income. The trends uncovered for Canada are found to be similar to those revealed for the U.S. In effect, by the early twentieth century workers were realizing their long expressed preferences for a shorter workweek at no loss in real income. Workers do not appear to have preferred less work if this came at the cost of a lower level material wellbeing.

Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-03887-7_12

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-03887-7_12

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