On 5 January 1914, Henry Ford instituted an eight hour day with a minimum wage of $5.00 per day for his employees at the Ford Motor Car Company. At the time, the auto industry was paying an average wage of $2.34 for a nine hour shift.

In his 1922 My Life and Work, Ford wrote that they did not make the changes because they thought that “we could pay them.” Instead, they wanted the business to “be on a lasting foundation” because they were “building for the future.” He argued that “A low wage business is always insecure.” Although the announcement of the $5.00 day made worldwide news, Ford explained that “hardly anyone got the facts quite right.” For example, employees had to have been working for Ford Motor Car Company for six months. Furthermore, the man (or sometimes a woman who was “the sole support of some next of kin”) would first be paid his wage “then on an average of about fifteen percent above the usual market wage.” He would then get a certain profit “calculated to give a minimum daily income of five dollars.”

The eight hour work day was advocated by Robert Owen as early as 1817 while he was still living in England. In the United States the National Labor Union proposed on 20 August 1866. However, the main focus for labor reform was to limit the work day to 10 hours. As late as 1890, the average work week for manufacturing employees was 100 hours; two hours less than the average work week for building tradesmen.

Two years after Ford instituted the eight hour work day, the Adamson Act established an eight hour workday for railroad workers. The following year, in 1817, the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Congress’ ability to regulate hours in a private business when it ruled on Wilson v. New which challenged Adamson. It was not until 1938 when the Fair Labor Standard’s Act established the eight hour workday as the national norm.
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–Steven L. Berg, PhD

Although Today in History is primarily student written, there are some days when we do not have a student author. You will enjoy another student entry tomorrow.