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Henry Ford raised his wages to enable the people making his cars to be able to actually purchase one, the equivalent of 4 months wages.
Chinese autoworkers would have to work for over three years for the same privilege.
How would you like to make 88 cents an hour/$3,544 a year with average of 25 hours a week overtime?
By Bloomberg News
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- “Little” Xie says he wants to own one of the autos he helps build at Ford Motor Co.’s assembly plant in the Yangtze River city of Chongqing. With his mortgage payment taking about 60 percent of his 2,000 yuan monthly pay, that won’t happen soon.
The founder of the auto manufacturer that bears his name generated headlines around the world in January 1914 by doubling the average autoworker’s pay to $5 a day. The move made Ford’s Model T more affordable, created a more stable workforce and helped stoke the growth of the U.S. middle class, according to Bob Kreipke, the historian for the Dearborn, Michigan-based company.
Ford’s $5 daily pay allowed an employee to buy a Model T that cost $440 with the equivalent of about four months’ wages. Chinese factory workers averaged 24,192 yuan ($3,544) a year in 2008, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing, so it would take more than three years worth of wages for them to afford the cheapest car advertised on the company’s Chinese-language Web site: a four-door hatchback with a 1.3 liter engine listed for 78,900 yuan.
Even a skilled worker like Gong -- who also asked that his full name not be used -- said he makes only 6 yuan ($0.88) an hour as a welder at Ford’s Chongqing plant, 9 yuan an hour for overtime.
“I have a dream of someday buying a car,” said Gong, 29, as he walked home in the rain after a 10-hour shift. “I guess it will take six years of saving.”
(I deleted about 2/3 of the article for brevity)
Chinese autoworkers would have to work for over three years for the same privilege.
How would you like to make 88 cents an hour/$3,544 a year with average of 25 hours a week overtime?
By Bloomberg News
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- “Little” Xie says he wants to own one of the autos he helps build at Ford Motor Co.’s assembly plant in the Yangtze River city of Chongqing. With his mortgage payment taking about 60 percent of his 2,000 yuan monthly pay, that won’t happen soon.
The founder of the auto manufacturer that bears his name generated headlines around the world in January 1914 by doubling the average autoworker’s pay to $5 a day. The move made Ford’s Model T more affordable, created a more stable workforce and helped stoke the growth of the U.S. middle class, according to Bob Kreipke, the historian for the Dearborn, Michigan-based company.
Ford’s $5 daily pay allowed an employee to buy a Model T that cost $440 with the equivalent of about four months’ wages. Chinese factory workers averaged 24,192 yuan ($3,544) a year in 2008, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing, so it would take more than three years worth of wages for them to afford the cheapest car advertised on the company’s Chinese-language Web site: a four-door hatchback with a 1.3 liter engine listed for 78,900 yuan.
Even a skilled worker like Gong -- who also asked that his full name not be used -- said he makes only 6 yuan ($0.88) an hour as a welder at Ford’s Chongqing plant, 9 yuan an hour for overtime.
“I have a dream of someday buying a car,” said Gong, 29, as he walked home in the rain after a 10-hour shift. “I guess it will take six years of saving.”
(I deleted about 2/3 of the article for brevity)
