Here’s How The Five-Day Work Week Was Created in Michigan: 1926

We are so spoiled with our two-day-off weekends. If someone is called in or is asked to work on a Saturday or Sunday, the baby-whining and excuses begin. Oh, how terrible it would be to work on a Saturday. My goodness.

It didn’t use to be that way...once upon a time there were 10 to 16-hour workdays, seven days a week. Over time, that was changed to six-day work weeks, eight hours a a day. Finally, in 1926, the five-day, eight hours per day work week was implemented and has been the norm ever since.

And it wasn't created in Washington D.C....it was created and implemented here in Michigan.

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So whose brilliant idea was this?
You can thank auto mogul Henry Ford for that idea. Ford’s assembly lines were tedious to work, and linemen would keep quitting after a short time. What could Ford do to make employees stay longer? In 1914 he raised the minimum wage to five bucks a day (twice the normal rate), and reduced daily hours to eight.

Ford claimed these changes would prevent the large amount of employee turnover and lessen the chances of workers getting too pooped to finish the day. The catch was: workers had to stay sober, not to physically abuse their families, keep their houses clean, and contribute to a savings account. Realizing he couldn’t enforce these requirements, he dropped ‘em in 1921.

So in 1926, Ford went another step further and introduced a five-day work week. It gave employees an extra day off, which worried some people about losing a day’s pay. It didn't matter that newspapers around the country were slamming Ford for his five-day work week idea.....but in the end, it worked.

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