Changes

In the late 19th century, factory workers and others in the United Kingdom were using their Sunday's, as their one day off, to enjoy at local pubs or gamble. This often meant that Monday became a day when many workers simply did not show up or were very late to work. Business owners responded by giving their workers half of Saturday night off as a way to compensate for the fact that they wanted their workers to come to work on Monday. Effectively, they gave them an extra night to enjoy in exchange for coming to work back on time on Monday. Soon, writing around the late 1870s and later, began to refer to this period as the week-end or the period that was the end of the week when workers would have Saturday night and Sunday off. In fact, the first known instance of the week-end was used in the magazine <i>Notes and Queries</i> in an article published in 1879. A key moment in the modern workweek came in 1908, when a mill in New York became the first business to give workers Saturday and Sunday off, that is the first modern weekend and workweek. This occurred because the factory had a substantial number of Jewish and Christian workers. Jewish workers celebrated the Sabbath from Friday night to Saturday, while Christians wanted Sunday off. What began as an incentive to the Jewish workers soon became established for all workers in the factory.  Nevertheless, despite the use of the five day workweek and two day weekend, this concept did not catch on in the rest of the United States at this point. Some factories and workplaces did institute a five day workweek, but it only became routine during the Great Depression. For companies that were struggling financially during this time, one remedy to diminish costs was to shorten the workweek, which was often six days, to five days. This helped many businesses stay viable during very difficult economic periods for the US and the world.