The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1914-03-27
TOILERS TO SHARE
Ford Motor Company Employees
to Get S1O,OO0,O0O Dividend.
MlNlMUM WAGE SIS A DAY.

Henry Ford. head of the Ford Mo
tor company of Detroit, recently an
nounred most remarkable business
move In brief it is:
TO give to the employees of the com
pany S1O,OOO,00O of the profits of the
1914 business. the payments to be
made semmonthly and added to the
pay checks.
TO run the factory continuously in
stead of only eighteen hours day.
giving employment to several thou
sand more men by employing three
shifts of eight hours each instead OF
only two nine hour shifts
TO establish minimum wage scale
of So per day Even the boy who
sweeps up the floors will get that much.
Before any man in any department
Of the company who does not seem to
be don9 Good work shall be discharg-
ed. an of 4rtunity will be given to him
to try To- make good in every other de-
partnIeut so man shall be discharged
except for proved untaithfuIness or If
remcdiahlc ineticiency.
About ~ per cent Of the employees.
boys aud women. will not be affected
by the profit sharing. Those among
them who are supporting families,
however, will have share similar to
the men of more than twenty-five
years of age
In all, about 10000 employees VIII De
IHiftant thuuS1u nd ppn DDN a
work in the Detroit factories. -Four
thousand more will be added by the in
stitution of the eight hour shift The
other 1000 employees are scattered all
over the world in the Ford branches.
They will share the same as the De
troit employees
Personal statements were made by
Henry Ford and James COuzens, treas
urer of the company.
1T is our belief said Mr.. COuzens
that social justice begins at home.
We want those who have helped us to
produce this great institution and are
helping to maintain it to share our
prosperity. We want them to have
present profits and future prospects.
Thrift and good service and sobriety,
all will be enforced and recognized"
Mr. Ford laid emphasis on the fact
that he did not consider his profit shar-
ing plan as a work of philanthropy
THE increase in pay which our EN-
ployees will receive is neither charity
nor wages. 1t is simply profit sharing.
In a way it is piece of efficiency en-
cheering too. We expect to get bet
ter work, more efficient work, as one
result. And that is one reason why
we decided to make the distribution
now-in estimated profits for the year
to come rather than in a mere promise
of increase at the end of the year.
When you have given man some
thing. you know, then you can talk to
him. You have a basis to go on.
ANY one may put a similar plan into
operation. There is nothing new about
profit sharing. 1t can be done in pro-
portion to the size of the plant by any
manufacturer. When you come to look
at it, what we have done is not so
very big 1t looks big in the aggre-
gate, but you must remember that the
division applies to more than 10000
persons. and the individual increase
will not be large. The plan applies.
you see, not only to the Detroit fac
tory, but to our factories and assem-
bling plants all over the world"
When he was asked how the floor
sweepers and men employed in like
capacities could earn the minimum
wage of So for an eight hour day,
which they are to receive under the
new plan, Mr.. Ford replied:
"They are not floor sweepers long.
They begin at that, perhaps, but we
have a special department which
teaches them In two weeks to make
some particular portion of the finished
machine. They thus become mechan.
les. In two weeks they are specialists
for us. If they do not succeed at
first we try them again in some other
department until either we find what
they can do or find that they are hope
lessly inefficient
THE increase applies to all wage
earners as distinguished from salaried
employees. Some question has been
raised about making the minimum for
women less than that of men. The
proportionate wage in this regard will
not differ from the present rate. Our
present minimum for women is $40 a
month. No girl is hired for less than
that. Many are making $50 and $40
or more. Under the new plan women
will share with men in the Increase
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES that in the case
of women with large families depend.
ent upon them the minimum will be So
day
mo man will be discharged. if we
can help it, except for unfathfulness
or inefliciency. No foreman in the Ford
company has the power to discharge a
man. He may send him out of his de
partment if he does not make good.
The man is then sent to our clearing
house. covering all the departments,
and is tried repeatedly in other work
until wa find rho ioh ha io c,,itod e.,