The value of a 40-hour week had been recognized as far back as 1869, when President Ulysses S. Grant (another Republican!)
The imperfect answer is something called a “duties test,” which looks at what sort of work an individual performs.
In 1940, x was $50 per week for professionals, the slipperiest of the three exempt categories.
After inflation, that was the equivalent, today, of $1,124 per week, or just a whisker below today’s median weekly wage ($1,139).
A 40-hour work week was guaranteed not just to the lowest-paid employees, but also to the middle class.
By 1975, x was $155 per week for executives and administrators and $170 per week for professionals, a high enough ceiling to extend the 40-hour week to 65 percent of all salaried employees.
In 1975—the year Saigon fell and Saturday Night Live debuted—most salaried workers in the United States qualified for overtime pay. »
