During the Industrial Revolution, companies attempted to maximize the output of their factories by keeping them running as many hours as possible, typically implementing a "sun up to sun down" workday.
在工业革命期间，公司试图通过让工厂尽可能长时间地运转来最大限度提高产量，典型的做法是实行每天“从日出到日落”的工时制。
Wages were also extremely low, so workers themselves often needed to work these long shifts just to get by, including often sending their children to work in the factories as well, rather than getting them educated.
工资也非常低，所以工人们自己通常需要长时间上这种班才能勉强糊口，包括经常把自己的孩子也送到工厂工作，而不是让他们接受教育。
With little representation, education, or options, factory workers also tended to work in horrible working conditions to go along with the bad hours.
由于没有代言人，没接受过教育，也别无其它选择，工厂工人往往要在恶劣的工作条件下工作，工作时间也很不人性化。
The typical workday at this time lasted anywhere from 10 to 18 hours per day, six days a week.
当时的典型工作时间是每天10到18个小时，一周6天。
This all began to change in the 19th century.
这一切在19世纪开始有所改观。
The first to suggest an eight hour workday for everyone was a British man by the name of Robert Owen, who was also one of the founders of socialism.
第一个建议每人每天工作八小时的是位英国人，名叫罗伯特·欧文，他也是社会主义的创始人之一。
Owen felt that the workday should be divided into thirds, with workers getting equal time to themselves and to sleep as they did for work.
欧文认为工作日的时间应该分成3部分，让工人们有和工作时间同样长的自由支配时间和休息时间。
Thus, in 1817, he began campaigning for an eight-hour working days for all workers, coming up with the phrase, "Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest." Unfortunately, this did not catch on for some time, though throughout the 19th century a series of Factories Acts were passed that steadily improved working conditions and reduced work hours for factory workers.
因此，在1817年，他开始为所有工人争取8小时工作制，喊出了“8小时劳动，8小时娱乐，8小时休息”的口号。不幸的是,在一段时间内，这种做法并没有流行起来，尽管在整个19世纪通过了一系列工厂法案，稳步改善了工厂工人的工作条件，也缩短了工作时间。
For instance, The Factories Act of 1847 stipulated that women and children were to be granted a ten-hour workday, thus only having to work 60 hours a week.
例如，1847年的《工厂法》规定妇女和儿童每个工作日要工作10小时，因此每周只需工作60小时。
The eight-hour workday cause was taken up once again in Britain in 1884 by Tom Mann who was part of the Social Democratic Federation.
1884年，社会民主联盟成员汤姆·曼在英国再次倡导8小时工作制。
Mann subsequently formed an "Eight Hour League" whose sole goal was to get the eight-hour workday established.
曼随后成立了“8小时工作制联盟”，其唯一目标就是建立8小时工作制。
Their biggest victory came when they managed to convince the Trades Union Congress, which represented the majority of unions in Britain- and does so even to this day- to establish the eight-hour workday as one of their primary goals, which they subsequently began to work towards.
他们最大的成就是说服了英国工会联盟，该组织代表了英国大多数工会的利益。直到今天，他们仍将8小时工作制作为主要目标之一，并始终朝着这个目标努力。
The push for a shorter workday began earlier in the United States, in 1791, with workers in Philadelphia striking for a ten-hour total workday that would include two hours for meals.
早在1791年，美国费城的工人就开始为争取缩短工作时间进行斗争，他们举行罢工，要求每天工作10小时，其中包括2小时的吃饭时间。
By the 1830s, support for eight-hour work days was shared among the majority of the working-class people in the United States, but still failed to find support among business owners.
到了19世纪30年代，美国大多数工人阶层都赞成每天工作8小时，但这仍然没有得到企业主的支持。
Over the next few decades, workers continued to hold strikes demanding shorter working hours and gradually things began improving.
在接下来的几十年里，工人们继续举行罢工，要求缩短工作时间，渐渐地情况出现了转机。
Momentum for the cause particularly picked up with several "Eight Hour Leagues" forming in the United States, as Mann had formed in Britain around this same time.
特别是随着美国多个“8小时联盟”的出现，这场运动势如破竹，大约在同一时期，曼在英国也成立了“8小时联盟”。
In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions declared that May 1, 1886 would be the first day that an eight-hour workday would be made mandatory.
1884年，有组织贸易联盟和工会宣布，1886年5月1日开始强制实行8小时工作制。
This, of course, was neither backed by any federal mandate nor the businesses themselves and relied on workers striking and raising a general ruckus to drive the point home.
当然，这既没有得到任何联邦法令的支持，也没有得到企业本身的支持，而只是依靠工人罢工和普遍造势来扩大影响。
When May 1, 1886 arrived, the first-ever May Day parade was held with 350,000 workers walking off their jobs protesting for the eight-hour workday.
1886年5月1日当天，35万工人举行了有史以来首次“五一”大游行，他们离开工作岗位，为争取8小时工作制奔走疾呼。
Progress was still slow though and it wasn't until 1905 that industries began implementing the eight-hour workday on their own accord.
但进展仍然缓慢，直到1905年，各行各业才陆续开始自行实行8小时工作制。
One of the first businesses to implement this was the Ford Motor Company, in 1914, which not only cut the standard workday to eight hours, but also doubled their worker's pay in the process.
最早实行这一制度的企业之一是福特汽车公司。1914年，福特汽车公司不仅将标准工时减少到8小时，而且还将工人的工资提高了一倍。
To the shock of many industries, this resulted in Ford's productivity off of these same workers, but with fewer hours, actually increasing significantly and Ford's profit margins doubled within two years after implementing this change.
令许多行业感到震惊的是，这使得福特公司的工人在工作时间减少的情况下提高了生产率，而且在实施这项改革后的两年内，福特公司的利润率翻了一番。
This encouraged other companies to adopt the shorter, eight-hour workday as a standard for their employees.
这极大的鼓励了其它公司也采用这种较短的8小时工作制作为员工标准工时。
Finally, in 1937 the eight-hour workday was standardized in the United States and regulated by the federal government according to the Fair Labor Standards Act.
最终，1937年，美国将8小时工作制标准化，并由联邦政府根据《公平劳动标准法》加以规范。
It stipulated that workers were not to work more than 44 hours per week and any hours over 40 required of the worker were to be paid with overtime bonuses added to their normal pay rate.
它规定工人每周工作时间不得超过44小时，并且超出40小时的部分，将在正常工资的基础上获得加班费。
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