October 7, 2026: When A Pay Raise Came With an Inspector

Everyone knows Ford doubled wages to five dollars a day. Almost nobody knows what it actually took to keep the full amount.

On October 7, 1913, Ford's Highland Park plant began assembling Model T chassis on a moving line, a process innovation so punishing to the workers running it that annual turnover climbed above 370 percent within months. The famous five dollar day announced that January was Ford's fix for the crisis, but roughly half the wage was a conditional bonus, and the company created a Sociological Department that sent fifty investigators into employees' homes with a 150-question checklist covering everything from a wife's employment status to bank deposit habits.

This is bsnsHistory, the daily podcast about the moments when business quietly reshaped the world.

Written and hosted by Ron Trucks. Research and editing by Rodney Russ. Sound design by Angela Cahoy. Music by Cody Martin and Soundstripe.

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