Workweek and weekend


The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week, devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays, or workweek, is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most of the world, the workweek is from Monday to Friday and the weekend is Saturday and Sunday. A weekday or workday is any day of the working week. Other institutions often follow this pattern, such as places of education. The constituted weekend has varying definitions, based on determined calendar days, designated period of time, and/or regional definition of the working week. Sometimes the term "weekend" is expanded to include the time after work hours on the last workday of the week.
Weekdays and workdays can be further detailed in terms of working time, the period of time that an individual spends at paid occupational labor.
In many Christian traditions, Sunday is the "day of rest and worship". The Jewish Shabbat or Biblical Sabbath lasts from sunset on Friday to the fall of full darkness on Saturday; as a result, the weekend in Israel is observed on Friday to Saturday. Some Muslim-majority countries historically instituted a Thursday–Friday weekend. Today, many of these countries, in the interests of furthering business trade and cooperation, have shifted to Friday–Saturday or Saturday–Sunday.
The Christian day of worship is just one day each week, but the preceding day came to be taken as a holiday as well in the 20th century. This shift has been accompanied by a reduction in the total number of hours worked per week. The present-day concept of the "weekend" first arose in the industrial north of Britain in the early 19th century. A day off is a non-working day, not necessarily on weekends.
Some countries have adopted a six-day workweek and one-day weekend, which can be Friday only, Saturday only, or Sunday only. However, most countries have adopted a five-day workweek and two-day weekend, whose days differ according to religious tradition: Friday and Saturday ; Saturday and Sunday ; or Friday and Sunday and Sarawak ), with the previous evening post-work often considered part of the weekend. Proposals continue to be put forward to reduce the number of days or hours worked per week, such as the four-day workweek, on the basis of predicted social and economic benefits.

History

A continuous seven-day cycle that runs throughout history, paying no attention whatsoever to the phases of the moon and having a fixed day of rest, was most likely first practised in Judaism, dated to the 6th century BC at the latest.
In Ancient Rome, every eight days there was a nundinae. It was a market day, during which children were exempted from school and agricultural workers stopped work in the field and came to the city to sell the produce of their labor or to practice religious rites.
The French Revolutionary Calendar had ten-day weeks and allowed décadi, one out of the 10 days, as a leisure day. From 1929 to 1940, the Soviet Union utilized a calendar with five and six-day work weeks, with a rest day assigned to a worker either with a colour or number.
During the Han dynasty of imperial China, officials had a day off once every five days known as hsui-mu （休沐）. This rest day was known as "a day for rest and for washing one's hair".
In cultures with a four-day workweek, the three Sabbaths derive from the culture's main religious tradition: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The present-day concept of the relatively longer "week-end" first arose in the industrial north of Britain in the early 19th century and was originally a voluntary arrangement between factory owners and workers allowing Saturday afternoon off starting at two pm on the basis that staff would be available for work sober and refreshed on Monday morning. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the first use of the term "weekend" to the British magazine Notes and Queries in 1879.
In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, a predecessor of today’s AFL-CIO, called for all workers to have eight-hour days by May 1, 1886, playing a crucial role in the push for a five-day workweek.In 1908, the first five-day workweek in the United States was instituted by a New England cotton mill so that Jewish workers would not have to work on the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. In 1926, Henry Ford began shutting down his automotive factories for all of Saturday and Sunday, realizing that by giving workers more time off it would encourage more leisure activities such as vacations and shopping. In 1929, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was the first union to demand and receive a five-day workweek. The rest of the United States slowly followed, but it was not until 1940, when a provision of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act mandating a maximum 40-hour workweek went into effect, that the two-day weekend was adopted nationwide.
Over the succeeding decades, particularly in the 1940s to 1960s, an increasing number of countries adopted either a Friday–Saturday or a Saturday–Sunday weekend to harmonize with international markets. A series of workweek reforms in the mid-to-late 2000s and early 2010s brought much of the Arab world in synchronization with the majority of countries around the world, in terms of working hours, the length of the workweek, and the days of the weekend. The International Labour Organization currently defines a workweek exceeding 48 hours as excessive. A 2007 study by the ILO found that at least 614.2 million people around the world were working excessive hours.

Length

Actual workweek lengths have been falling in the developed world. In the United States, the workweek length reduced slowly from before the Civil War to the start of the 20th century. There was a rapid reduction between 1900 and 1920, especially between 1913 and 1919, when weekly hours fell by about eight percent. In 1926, Henry Ford standardized on a five-day workweek, instead of the prevalent six days, without reducing employees' pay. Hours worked stabilized at about 49 per week during the 1920s, and during the Great Depression fell below 40. During the Depression, President Herbert Hoover called for a reduction in work hours in lieu of layoffs. Later, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which established a five-day, 40-hour workweek for many workers. The proportion of people working very long weeks has since risen, and the full-time employment of women has increased dramatically.
The New Economics Foundation has recommended moving to a 21-hour standard workweek to address problems with unemployment, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, overworking, family care, and the general lack of free time. The Center for Economic and Policy Research states that reducing the length of the work week would slow climate change and have other environmental benefits. A study from the University of Massachusetts concluded that a full day taken off of the workweek would cut humanity's carbon footprint by nearly 30%. After working 25 hours in a week, research has shown that cognitive performance decreases and fatigue and stress increases.
In the 21st century, those such as Anna Coote, the head of social policy at the New Economics Foundation and British sociologist Peter Fleming, among others, have proposed the introduction of a three-day workweek. The arguments for its introduction include a better work-life balance, more family time, improved health and well-being, greater sustainability, increased work productivity, and a reduction of overwork, unemployment and over-consumption.

By country

Table

Nation or territoryTypical hours worked
per week		Working weekTypical hours worked
per day
Afghanistan48Sunday–Thursday8
Albania40Monday–Friday8
Algeria40Sunday–Thursday8
Angola40Monday–Friday8
Argentina40Monday–Friday8
Armenia45Monday–Friday9
Azerbaijan40Monday–Friday8
Austria40Monday–Friday8
Australia38Monday–Friday7.6
Bahrain40Sunday–Thursday8
Bangladesh40Sunday–Thursday8
Benin40Monday–Friday8
Belarus40Monday–Friday8
Belgium38Monday–Friday7.6
Bolivia40–48Monday–Saturday8
Brazil44Monday–Friday8.5
Brunei40Monday–Thursday and Saturday8
Burundi50Monday–Friday10
Bulgaria40Monday–Friday8
Canada40Monday–Friday8
Cambodia40Monday–Friday8
Cameroon50Monday–Friday10
Chile45Monday–Friday9
People's Republic of China42Monday–Friday8
Congo, Democratic Republic of40Monday–Friday8
Côte d'Ivoire40Monday–Friday8
Croatia40Monday–Friday8
Colombia48Monday–Friday /
Monday–Saturday		8 or 10
Costa Rica48Monday–Friday8
Czechia40Monday–Friday8
Denmark37Monday–Friday7.4
Djibouti40Saturday–Thursday6.7
Dominican Republic40Monday–Friday8
Egypt40Sunday–Thursday8
Equatorial Guinea48Monday–Saturday8
Ethiopia40Monday–Friday8
Estonia40Monday–Friday8
Eswatini40Monday–Friday8
Finland38Monday–Friday7.6
France35Monday–Friday7
Gabon40Monday–Friday8
Gambia40Monday–Friday8
Germany38.5Monday–Friday8
Ghana40Monday–Friday8
Greece48Monday–Saturday8
Honduras44Monday–Saturday8
Hungary40Monday–Friday8
Hong Kong40–48Monday–Saturday8
India48–66Monday–Saturday 10
Indonesia40–48Monday–Friday
Monday–Thursday and Saturday
8, many people work a 6-day week with 7-hour days.
Iran44Saturday–Thursday8
Iraq40Sunday–Thursday8
Ireland40Monday–Friday8
Israel44.5Sunday–Thursday8.9
Italy40Monday–Friday8
Japan40Monday–Friday8
Jordan45Sunday–Thursday9
Kazakhstan40Monday–Friday8
Kuwait35 Sunday–Thursday7
Kenya40Monday–Friday8
Laos40Monday–Friday8
Latvia40Monday–Friday8
Lebanon40Monday–Friday8, Most of the people have a six-day workweek, with Saturday as a partial workday.
Lesotho40Monday–Friday8
Libya40Sunday–Thursday8
Lithuania40Monday–Friday8
Luxembourg40Monday–Friday8
Madagascar40Monday–Friday8
Maldives40Sunday–Thursday8
Malawi40Monday–Friday8
Mali40Monday–Friday8
Malta40Monday–Friday8
Mauritania40Monday–Friday8
Malaysia44Sunday–Thursday

Monday–Friday 		8
Mexico48Monday–Saturday8
Mongolia40Monday–Friday8
Morocco44Monday–Friday8
Mozambique40Monday–Friday8
Myanmar40Monday–Friday8
Nepal42Sunday–Friday7
Netherlands40Monday–Friday8
New Zealand40Monday–Friday8
Nigeria40Monday–Friday8
North Korea48Monday–Saturday8
Norway37.5Monday–Friday7.5
Oman40 Sunday–Thursday8
Pakistan54Monday–Saturday9.
Palestine45Saturday–Thursday8
Philippines45–54Monday–Saturday9
Poland40Monday–Friday8
Portugal40Monday–Friday8
Qatar40 Sunday–Thursday8
Romania40Monday–Friday8
Russia40Monday–Friday8
Rwanda40Monday–Friday8
Saudi Arabia40–48 Sunday–Thursday8
Senegal40Monday–Friday8
Serbia40Monday–Friday8
Singapore44Monday–Friday9
Slovakia40Monday–Friday8
Spain40Monday–Friday8
Sri Lanka40Monday–Friday8
South Africa40Monday–Friday8
South Korea40Monday–Friday8
Somalia45Saturday–Thursday8
Sudan40Sunday–Thursday8
Suriname39.5Monday–Friday8; Monday–Thursday 7:00 – 15:00 / Friday 7:00 – 14.30
Sweden40Monday–Friday8
Switzerland41Monday–Friday8.2
Syria40Sunday–Thursday8
Seychelles40Monday–Friday8
Taiwan40Monday–Friday8; The Labor Standards Act stipulates that a worker shall have one mandatory day off and one flexible rest day in every seven days. See One fixed day off and one flexible rest day policy.
Tanzania40Monday–Friday9
Togo40Monday–Friday8
Thailand40Monday–Friday8
Trinidad and Tobago40Monday–Friday8
Tunisia40Monday–Friday8
Turkey45Monday–Friday9
Ukraine40Monday–Friday8
United Arab Emirates40–48 Monday–Friday
Monday–Thursday
8 to 9
Federal and local government agencies and schools work Monday to Thursday with half-days on Fridays, except for local government employees and private schools in Sharjah, which operate only Monday to Thursday. Private companies determine their own workweeks; some allow employees to follow the local public sector workweek as long as they compensate for lost hours during the workweek.
United Kingdom37.5Monday–Friday7.5
United States40Monday–Friday8
Uganda48Monday–Saturday8
Uzbekistan40Monday–Friday /
Monday–Saturday		8
Venezuela40Monday–Friday8
Vietnam40Monday–Friday8
Yemen40Sunday–Thursday8
Zambia40Monday–Friday8
Zimbabwe40Monday–Friday8; Most people work half a day on Saturday