The Car Manufacturer Who Created the Weekend

As Ford’s production line became more efficient, a new problem emerged: workers were quitting. The repetitive, relentless nature of the assembly caused many to leave. And the cost of training their replacement ate straight into those carefully engineered efficiency gains. So Henry Ford made a controversial move. He raised the daily wage from $2.34 to $5, and then went further. Instead of the standard single day off on Sunday, he introduced a two-day break: Saturday and Sunday. The result wasn’t just happier workers, it was a more stable, more productive factory. And in the process, the modern weekend was born.