Friday, September 2, 2011

1919 Minimum Wage

Ford Pays $6 Minimum Wage~~A new minimum wage scale of $6 a day, a flat increase of $1 a day for approximately 28,000 employees throughout the country, was announced Wednesday by the Ford Motor company. Employees of the Ford Tractor interests also are included in the increase. The new wage minimum becomes effective Wednesday. Twenty-three thousand other employees of the Ford interests already receive $6 or more a day.

Coincidentwith the announcement of the wage increase, it was made known that Henry Ford has formally resigned as president of the Ford Motor company and his son, Edsel Ford, elected to succeed him at a salary of $150,000 a year.

Mr. Ford, in tendering his resignation, gave as his reason his desire to devote more time to the tractor industry. He retains, however, his seat on the board of directors of the company. Edsel Bryant Ford, who becomes the executive head of a corporation representing an investment of close to $200,000,000, is only 24 years old. He entered the shops of the Ford plant when he was 16 years old to gain a thorough working knowledge of his father's business. He has been acting as executive head of the Ford Motor company for the past few months; his father, having withdrawn from active participation in the management, to devote his time to the tractor business and a new national weekly newspaper.

Concerning the wage increase, Henry Ford said that it was "only a just reward to the men who remained loyal to the company during the war period."

World War I had just ended.

This article was found in the local newspaper, as were many others regarding Ford's activities during the war.

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