Public Media from Michigan State University

A century later: The legacy of Ford’s 'living wage'

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On January 5, 1914, Henry Ford introduced a conditional five-dollar a day wage for his assembly line workers. One hundred years later, different people put different spins on the story. Some say it was Henry Ford paying his workers enough to buy the cars they were producing. Some say it was only a move to stop the high levels of worker on the assembly lines.

MSU's John Beck takes a look at the competing narratives and some interesting parallels 100 years on.

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