Supply and demand is the foundation of capitalist economics, and demand for labor is falling, taking our economy with it.
The forty hour work week has been the standard for a century, while technology has more than doubled the real value of the average man-hour in the manufacturing, construction, service and agriculture sectors. It's no surprise that in a system that sees abundance as overproduction that over-saturation of the labor market caused by out-dated employment models would wind up putting laborers out of work.
Forcing employers to pay overtime to any employee that works more than thirty hours would put Americans back to work, and give employees the ability to more successfully negotiate for higher wages.