Back Hours?
I wonder what Rashleigh did with his $11.76?
I would imagine that notice was issued sometime around February 1, 1921 and "back hours" are the hours already worked and paid since January 1, 1921. We'd call it "retroactive" I think.
You got to remember that amount of money at that time was like a mini windfall.
John
About $ 143 dollars converted to 2010 dollars US
Filled up the car-a model T Touring, no doubt, then took the family to Nellies Restaurant for dinner, then to the Nickelodeon, and when they got home they put the remaining $1.73 in the cookie jar.
So this is related the end of the profit sharing bonus The profit-sharing was offered to employees who had worked at the company for six months or more, and, importantly, conducted their lives in a manner of which Ford's "Social Department" approved. They frowned on heavy drinking, gambling, and (what today are called) deadbeat dads. The Social Department used 50 investigators, plus support staff, to maintain employee standards; a large percentage of workers were able to qualify for this "profit-sharing."
Ford's incursion into his employees' private lives was highly controversial, and he soon backed off from the most intrusive aspects. By the time he wrote his 1922 memoir, he spoke of the Social Department and of the private conditions for profit-sharing in the past tense, and admitted that "paternalism has no place in industry. Welfare work that consists in prying into employees' private concerns is out of date. Men need counsel and men need help, often special help; and all this ought to be rendered for decency's sake. But the broad workable plan of investment and participation will do more to solidify industry and strengthen organization than will any social work on the outside. Without changing the principle we have changed the method of payment."[32] Source wikipedia
At the time "Ford Methods and Ford Shops" was written (March, 1914), "girls and women" were paid 32 cents an hour minimum wage. They were used only on one shift and had a separate entrance to the factory.
The book presents some factory conditions that are against the law now. Especially lunch breaks. (Some as little as 10 minutes and at your station.) And that "$5 per hour" didn't apply to all male workers. You had to have a dependent.
Ken,
Minor type-o correction. I think you meant $5 for an 8 hour day not per hour. And yes there were several restrictions/condition to receive the full $5. That was started in Jan 1914 (ref: http://corporate.ford.com/news-center/press-releases-detail/677-5-dollar-a-day )
I remember stories from my Dad when he talked about working 12 hours a day for a $1 a day during the depression and he was very thankful to find the work.
Respectfully submitted,
Hap l9l5 cut off
Ops! Yes, that should be $5/day.