Ford Pays $5 Per Day
January 5,.
1914
The automaker Henry Ford announces an unprecedented five-dollar-a-day minimum wage for his employees, doubling the current wages of his assembly line workers.
Five dollars in 1914 adjusted for inflation is about $140 in today's money.
The high pay attracted thousands of hopeful employees from across the country. The crowds were so large that riots broke out and the crowd had to be dispersed with fire hoses.
The higher pay was needed to help combat the high worker turnover due to the monotony of working on a moving assembly line. In 1913, Ford had to hire more than 50,000 workers to support a workforce of only 14,000. New workers were expensive to train and the lack of workers was slowing production of his Model T's, which were in high demand.
However, the pay increase came with conditions.
The employees would still receive their pay of about $2.50 a day, but if they met company requirements they would get a bonus for the remainder of the five dollars. Some of the requirements to qualify for the bonus included:
• Abstain from alcohol and gambling
• Immigrant workers had to learn English and take classes to become "Americanized"
• Not physically abuse their family
• Keep their homes clean
• Not take in boarders
• Men's wives could not work outside the home .