THE FIVE-DAY WEEK IN
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

INTRODUCTION

HE question of the five-day week has several aspects
| that are commonly confused in current discussion and
must be sharply distinguished before there can be any
clear understanding of the problem.
In the first place, the five-day working schedule may involve
 a mere rearrangement or redistribution of weekly working
 hours, or a reduction in the weekly work time, or both.
[t 1s quite true that, in most cases where the five-day week is
applied, some reduction of weekly working hours is involved,
and that popular interest attaches chiefly to the shortening of
hours and increase of leisure with which the five-day movement
 is associated. Nevertheless, the five-day week can also
be considered on its merits as a redistribution of the weekly
hours of work, quite apart from any shortening of them that
may accompany such rearrangement.
Secondly, it should be noted that, whether attention is centered
 on the shortening or on the rearrangement of working
hours, the application of the five-day week may be considered
in one aspect as a purely practical administrative problem of
management, or in another aspect as a general question of
economic and social theory. An individual employer can
determine whether it is practicable or desirable for him to
operate his plant five days in the week, or to institute a fiveday
 working schedule for his employees even though the
plant is operated on a six-day basis. Practical considerations
of production costs, public psychology and morale of employees
 will govern him, and considerations of earnings, use
of leisure and the like, will sway workers in their attitude in
the matter. The consequences in each case will be of importance
 chiefly to the parties concerned. But, if the question is
whether the five-day week, either as a reduction or as a re-