Paying the workers more

When Ford introduced production lines in his car plant it had an immediate effect on output.

“Production time for a single vehicle fell from twelve hours to ninety-three minutes, with a new car rolling off the line every three minutes. 

 It was noisy and tedious for workers, but it was also surprisingly well paid: from 1914 Ford paid $5 for an eight-hour day, about double the industry’s going rate. Strange as it may seem, paying higher wages was yet another way of cutting costs and improving efficiency. In 1913, the year before the $5 wage was introduced, 71 percent of Ford’s new hires had left within five days. Paying higher wages reduced employee turnover, and hence the amount of time needed for training. 

 Ford claimed that “the payment of five dollars a day for an eight-hour day was one of the finest cost-cutting moves we ever made.” Average earnings in the United States in 1914 were $335, whereas a Ford employee working five-day weeks for fifty weeks would make $1,250.” 

Excerpt From: Tom Standage. “A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next”. Apple Books.