Workers' Pay:
After inventing
the assembly line, Ford was able to produce more cars in one day than other automobile companies. This
lead to him increasing his workers’ salaries. Back then minimum wage was $2.34
cents a day; Ford was paying his workers double that at $5 dollars a day. After
Ford changed minimum wage to $5 dollars a day, 10,000 workers from around the US
flocked to Ford’s factory to get a job from Ford. Ford raised his wages because
that would ensure loyalty. Also, he wanted his workers to be
able to buy the cars that they were making. By increasing his workers' wages,
Ford’s workers' could enjoy work and have money for leisure activities.
Workers' Hours:
Caption: Picture of 10,000 people waiting to jet a job at Ford Motor company.
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Along with Ford’s $5 dollars a day work
day, he also decreased his workers' hours from 9 to only 8 hours a day. This
means that his workers only worked 40 hours a week. Ford also decreased his workers' work week from 6 days to 5 days. This also gave
more free time to workers to spend time with their families or do activities
after work. Ford did this because he could have three 8 hour work shifts and hence build cars 24 hours a day.
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Workers' benefits
To add to the higher work wages and
shorter work week, Ford provided workers housing, insurance, and health
care. All of these benefits would come from working at Ford Motor Company. Workers'
housing, provided by Ford himself, would ensure that every Ford worker had a nice comfortable place to live.
Caption: Picture of Ford's workers assembling the Model-T.