Weekend

The word "week-end" first appeared in an 1879 British magazine describing someone who leaves home on Saturday afternoon to visit friends, returning Sunday evening.1 The concept it described, a two-day break from work, did not yet exist for most people. For the majority of workers in the industrial world, the only day free from labor was Sunday, and even that was not guaranteed.

In 1908, a New England cotton mill became the first American factory to institute a five-day work week, closing on both Saturday and Sunday so that Jewish workers could observe the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday without losing a day's pay.2 The accommodation solved a practical problem. Jewish employees who rested on Saturday had been making up the time on Sunday, which offended Christian workers. Giving everyone both days off eliminated the conflict.

In 1926, Henry Ford began shutting his automotive factories on both Saturday and Sunday, reasoning that workers with more free time would spend more money on goods and leisure, including automobiles.3 In 1929, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America became the first union to demand and receive a five-day work week. Other industries followed slowly.

The two-day weekend did not become the national standard until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 mandated a maximum forty-hour work week, with the provision taking full effect in 1940.4 By the 1970s, the five-day week had spread across most of Europe. In England, factories had introduced a half-day off on Saturdays as early as the 1850s, partly to ensure workers showed up sober on Monday.5