1. Work Continues to Change…
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries…

2. Changed Wage-Skill Relationship
Ford's five-dollar day often cited as a key factor in expanding the middle class
The five-dollar day reversed the historical relationship between wages and skill. Throughout history, the way for workers to increase the price they demanded for their services was to increase their skill level, and the way for an employer to lower labor costs was to lower the skill required to do the work.
The five-dollar day created something the world had never seen before: the high-wage/low skill job.
Workers at the Ford Motor Company Rouge Plant Foundry, 1935
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
ID#THF68318
But the new wage-skill relationship had unintended consequences for employers as well…

3. From the Collections of The Henry Ford, ID#THF23922
Labor Unions
Workers had power; if they felt they were treated unfairly, they could withhold their labor and bring a company or industry to a halt
When Great Depression prevented employers from paying the wages workers had grown accustomed to, workers formed unions
Using strikes, workers forced employers to sign written contracts, defining a new balance of power between worker and employer
Union Representatives Handing out Literature at Ford Rouge Plant, August, 1937
From the Collections of The Henry Ford, ID#THF23922

4. Multiple ways of working existed. Example:
U.S.:
Unions had firm work rules
Management did not ask workers’ opinions on improving process and quality
Individualistic
Many factories from turn of the 20th century
Japan:
Flexible work rules
Workers asked to provide ideas on improving process, quality
Team-based
Cutting-edge technology (all factories built/rebuilt after WWII)
In 21st century, U.S. industries becoming more similar to Japanese industries

5. Mechanization
Manufacturers continue to innovate assembly lines by using machinery to assist workers
Machinery good for repetitive or dangerous tasks and measuring quantity
Human are needed to innovate the process, monitor quality, and take care of machinery
Robot, First Unimate Robot Ever Installed on an Assembly Line, 1961
From the Collections of The Henry Ford, ID# THF17594

6. From the Collections of The Henry Ford, ID# THF73709
Globalization
U.S. manufacturers compete with foreign companies to sell products in the United States
Advertisement for the 1986 Nissan Stanza Wagon, "Nissan Innovation Strikes Again"
From the Collections of The Henry Ford, ID# THF73709

7. Globalization
U.S. companies want people in foreign companies to buy their cars. It is expensive to ship cars around the world. Also, the people in these markets need the money to purchase vehicles, so it makes sense to employ these potential customers in automobile factories, as was done with the $5 Day. Therefore factories are moved closer to these new markets.
Companies also manufacture overseas to avoid:
Rules about work set by unions
Laws about work and pollution
Taxes

8. Three generations of this family work for Ford Motor Company
Industrial Work Force
Auto industry needed many workers
Multiple generations of families are often employed in auto industry, in both low-skill and skilled jobs
Whole regions depend on industry
Industrial work force has few options when manufacturing leaves area
Today’s migration is FROM Michigan TO other places
Three generations of this family work for Ford Motor Company
Portrait of "Multigenerational" Family of Ford Workers, 2000 From the Collections of The Henry Ford, ID#THF68348

9. Rust Belt to Sun Belt Migration
High costs associated with unions (especially work rules and benefits) lead companies to manufacture in “right to work” states
Some auto plants move from North to Southeast
New auto plants, especially owned by foreign companies, open in Southeast
People move to follow jobs
Image Source: The Growth and Distribution of American Cities: 1790 to U.S. Census Bureau. Available via

10. Rust Belt to Sun Belt Migration
Image Source: The Growth and Distribution of American Cities: 1790 to U.S. Census Bureau. Available via