Paying high
wages and lowering production is starting down the incline toward dull
business.
It took us some time to get our bearings on wages, and it was not until
we had gone thoroughly into production on "Model T," that it was
possible to figure out what wages ought to be. Before then we had had
some profit sharing. We had at the end of each year, for some years
past, divided a percentage of our earnings with the employees. For
instance, as long ago as 1909 we distributed eighty thousand dollars on
the basis of years of service. A one-year man received 5 per cent. of
his year's wages; a two-year man, 7-1/2 per cent., and a three-year man,
10 per cent. The objection to that plan was that it had no direct
connection with the day's work. A man did not get his share until long
after his work was done and then it came to him almost in the way of a
present. It is always unfortunate to have wages tinged with charity.
And then, too, the wages were not scientifically adjusted to the jobs.
The man in job "A" might get one rate and the man in job "B" a higher
rate, while as a matter of fact job "A" might require more skill or
exertion than job "B.
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