Essay, Research Paper: Ford

The Ford Motor Company led what has been called a revolution. Henry Ford restructured everything from the salaries of employees to the work ethic they demonstrated. He did numerous things that were considered absurd and unrealistic at the time. This included the introduction of the $5.00 work day, and with this the desire to control his workers lives. In a way he did this for the better of the workers and the better of the company. The $5.00 per day rate was not as dumb as people perceived it to be. In reality, it was the perfect thing to do.
Henry Ford gradually increased the wages of Ford Motor Company employees. His main objective in doing this was to motivate his employees into being more dedicated and motivated, and increase production overall. Henry Ford did not have the reputation of being especially munificent to his workers, but he was in no way parsimonious. His salaries did not often exceed the going rate of about $1.90 for Model T production workers for a ten-hour day in 1908. The average salary for production workers increased to around $2.50 by 1913 with a minimum of just $2.34. In October of 1913 a man named John R. Lee, recruited from the Kiem Mills to reform the company s wage structure, developed an ingenious job-ladder system.
This innovative system allowed increased wages for the upper crust portion of the working core. These elite workers had incentives to work their way from the $2.34 minimum to over $4.00 a day. This was a wage increase of 13%! This system was developed to increase labor turnover and create a more stable and committed workforce.
This wage increase was copiously overshadowed by the increase to $5.00 a day just three months later. This pay raise was coupled with a reduction in work hours. Henry Ford replaced the two existing nine-hour shifts with a new nonstop rotation of eight-hour shifts around the clock. The new pay raise was part of a complicated system. The basic pay rate was to remain at $2.34. Workers could then reach a wage of $5.00 by earning a profit-sharing bonus. Workers could acquire this bonus on their paycheck regularly by meeting a few qualifications. They had to put in at least six months of service and be twenty-two years old.
At first, many people adored the idea of $5.00 per day. On January 5, 1914, Henry Ford announced this bonus plan. This pay raise was so monstrous that it emblazoned headlines across the country. A blinding rocket through the dark clouds of the present industrial depression, proclaimed the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The New York Evening Post announced A magnificent act of generosity. The Algonac Courier described Henry Ford as one of God s noblemen under the headline of GOD BLESS HENRY FORD.
This bonus improved the lifestyles of many workers eminently, although, it did come with many stipulations. Henry Ford wanted to made sure that his employees spent their supplementary wages in a conscientious way. He created the Sociological Department, which enforced demanding new standards that Ford employees were expected to live by. Employees should use plenty of soap and water in the home, and upon their children, bathing frequently. Nothing makes for right living and health so much as cleanliness. Notice that the most advanced people are the cleanest, described one pamphlet that was distributed to all employees. Henry Ford told the minister at his local church:
There are thousands of men out there in the shop who are not living as they should. Their homes are crowded and unsanitary. Wives are going out to work because their husbands are unable to earn enough to support the family. They fill up their homes with roomers and boarders in order to help swell the income. Its all wrong all wrong. It is especially bad for the children
Now, these people are not living in this manner as a matter of choice. Give them a decent income and they will live decently will be glad to do so. What they need is the opportunity to do better, and someone to take a personal interest in them someone who will show that he has faith in them.
A lot was expected out of Ford workers in return for a $5.00 a day paycheck. Many workers could not handle it, would rather be paid less, and not be driven as hard and live by strict regulations.
Herndon, Booton. Ford: An Unconventional Biography of
the Men and their times. New York: Weybright and Talley,1969.