This is how Ford CEO Jim Farley has made young workers want to be in his company

Ford is one of the most well-known companies in the United States but even they have had to adapt to changing economic tides. However in one specific case, it meant looking back to 1914 for direction.

In a recent conversation at Aspen Ideas Festival, Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed how he had tackled an issue with attracting younger workers. He was informed that some Ford employees were taking shifts at Amazon to boost their earnings and Farley decided to give a substantial pay rise, as company founder Henry Ford had done more than a century earlier.

In January 1914 Henry Ford raised factory wages to $5 a day, nearly double the average daily wage at the time. That allowed temporary workers to become permanent workers at Ford, ensuring that their efforts were focused entirely on the company.

Farley explained: “The older workers who’d been at the company said, ‘None of the young people want to work here. Jim, you pay $17 an hour, and they are so stressed.’”

“It wasn’t easy to do,” Farley said. “It was expensive. But I think that’s the kind of changes we need to make in our country.”

Beyond the wage increases and switch to more permanent contracted workers, Farley has also been a big proponent of greater education and skilled training. In comparison to some other developed economies the US has limited options for further education, making a career in manufacturing less appealing for the younger generations.

“Our governments have to get really serious about investing in trade schools and skilled trades,” Farley said. “You go to Germany, every one of our factory workers has an apprentice starting in junior high school. Every one of those jobs has a person behind it for eight years that is trained.”

For many young people, factory jobs are not a desirable or particularly lucrative career path. The average annual wage for a manufacturing job in the US is around $51,890, considerably less that the $66,600 national average. Deloitte anticipates that the US will add a further 3.8 million new manufacturing jobs by 2033 but firms face a battle to convince young people to take them.

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