Study after study has shown that longer work hours lead to shorter lives and higher risk of heart disease.
Longer hours also lead to narrower lives—with less time for family, play, and what you will.
Over decades of fighting, unions won the eight-hour day. And over decades of negotiating, they’ve often given it back by agreeing to overtime schemes linking increased pay to increased work.
That (combined with stagnant or falling real wage rates) leaves workers always hustling to catch up. Overtime may be “voluntary,” but it becomes necessary to make ends meet—or too tempting to pass up.