The truth about Henry Ford's "Five Dollar Day" [View all]

[HiPointDem]

You often hear people talk about how Ford paid wages above prevailing wage because he knew "they couldn't buy his cars if he didn't pay them well," or something along those lines.

But:

The Five Dollar Day was divided into two parts: a worker’s wages (approximately $2.40 per day for an unskilled worker) and a worker’s profits (about $2.60 per day). All workers received their wages... They received their profits, however, only if they were “worthy,” or had the appropriate habits and life-style and lived in proper homes...The Sociological Department of the Ford Motor Company was organized in March, 1913...

His Sociological Department investigated the home lives of his immigrant workers to check whether they had adopted the desired American habits such as washing regularly and brushing their teeth, and to decide whether they were worthy of receiving the five-dollar daily wage which Ford offered in 1914. Moreover, all immigrant workers had to attend compulsory English classes, and at the end of each class a spectacular graduation ceremony illustrated their transformation in the mythic American ‘melting pot.’ Here is what the Ford Times of 1916 had to say about it:

The “Melting Pot” exercises were dramatic in the extreme: A deckhand came down the gang plank.... “What cargo?” was the hail he received. “About 230 hunkies,” he called back. “Send’em along and we’ll see what the melting pot will do for them,” said the other and from the ship came a line of immigrants, in the poor garments of their native lands. Into the gaping pot they went. Then six instructors of the Ford school, with long ladles, started stirring. “Stir! Stir!” urged the superintendent of the school. The six bent to greater efforts. From the pot fluttered a flag, held high, then the first of the finished product of the pot appeared, waving his hat.... Many others followed him, gathering in two groups on each side of the cauldron. In contrast to the shabby rags they wore when they were unloaded from the ship, all wore neat suits...And ask anyone of them what nationality he is, and the reply will come quickly, “American!”

vashonsd.org/teacherweb/zecher/files/Fordism.doc