No country is in a vacuum... popular movements spread across borders and as the population of one country achieves something, their neighbours start demanding the same and so on... according to Wikipedia, the huge decline in working hours seen in the 20th century was mostly due to unionisation and legislation in response to popular demand.
Today, the US and the UK seem to be pretty typical compared to other countries, which is to be expected:
In all honesty, I would have though reduction of hours was due to automation and the advent of machinery, but I found this quote interesting...
When a labourer,” said Mr. Ashworth, a cotton magnate, to Professor Nassau W. Senior, “lays down his spade, he renders useless, for that period, a capital worth eighteen-pence. When one of our people leaves the mill, he renders useless a capital that has cost £100,000.” Only fancy! making “useless” for a single moment, a capital that has cost £100,000! It is, in truth, monstrous, that a single one of our people should ever leave the factory! The increased use of machinery, as Senior after the instruction he received from Ashworth clearly perceives, makes a constantly increasing lengthening of the working-day “desirable.”
Today, the US and the UK seem to be pretty typical compared to other countries, which is to be expected:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#/media/File:Heure...