Ford's Revolutionary Five Day Workweek Turns 100 Years Old

The Bold Experiment That Changed Everything

One hundred years ago this week, Henry Ford made a decision that would fundamentally reshape how the world works. On May 1, 1926, Ford Motor Company becomes one of the first companies in America to adopt a five-day, 40-hour week for workers in its automotive factories. What seemed radical then—eliminating Saturday from the workweek—has become so deeply embedded in modern life that most people can't imagine working any other way.

Ford's motivation wasn't purely altruistic. Though workers' time on the job had decreased, they were expected to expend more effort while they were there. The industrialist understood that well-rested workers were more productive workers. He also recognized a clever business opportunity: The five-day week, he figured, would encourage industrial workers to vacation and shop on Saturday. "People who have more leisure must have more clothes," he argued.

Ford announces that in order to provide employment for several thousand of Detroit's idle workers, and to afford workers already on the payroll more time to spend with their families the Ford Motor Company and its allied interests will adopt, as a settled policy, the 40-hour week, the workers now in the service to continue to receive a minimum wage of $6 per day and new employees $5 per day. This wage—roughly double the industry standard—helped ease worker concerns about losing Saturday pay.

From Factory Floor to Federal Law

Ford's experiment wasn't implemented overnight. The decision to reduce the workweek from six to five days had originally been made in 1922. In 1922 Ford made headlines again when he announced a plan to introduce the five-day workweek, which he implemented in 1926. According to an article published in The New York Times that March, Edsel Ford, Henry's son and the company's president, explained that "Every man needs more than one day a week for rest and recreation….The Ford Company always has sought to promote [an] ideal home life for its employees."

The impact rippled far beyond Detroit. The impact of Ford's decision reverberated far beyond the confines of his factories. Manufacturers across the nation and around the world soon followed suit, making the Monday-to-Friday workweek a standard practice. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program. It was legislation that had a significant impact on the U.S. labor market, establishing a minimum wage, "time-and-a-half" overtime pay, and a 44-hour workweek (later revised to a 40-hour workweek).

The Modern Four-Day Movement

Today, as Ford's five-day revolution reaches its centennial, another workplace transformation is gaining momentum. The trial was a resounding success. Of the 61 companies that participated, 56 are continuing with the four-day week (92%), with 18 confirming the policy is a permanent change. This refers to the world's largest four-day workweek trial, conducted in the UK with over 2,900 workers.

39% of employees were less stressed, and 71% had reduced levels of burnout at the end of the trial. Likewise, levels of anxiety, fatigue and sleep issues decreased, while mental and physical health both improved. Even more striking, The number of staff leaving participating companies decreased significantly, dropping by 57% over the trial period. Business performance remained strong, with Companies' revenue, for instance, stayed broadly the same over the trial period, rising by 1.4% on average, weighted by company size, across respondent organisations.

The Future of Work-Life Balance

Just as Ford faced skepticism a century ago, today's four-day advocates encounter resistance. "It's still early. I would be cautious about some of these data points that are just starting to come out," said Tammy Allen, PhD, a distinguished university professor of psychology at the University of South Florida who has studied flexible work arrangements for more than 20 years. "One thing we need to study is a potential 'honeymoon effect.' Early on, this seems fantastic, but as time goes on, it may lose its shine a bit."

Yet the evidence continues mounting. The researchers team conducted a follow-up survey at the 12-month mark for the trial companies. They found that the benefits were not temporary. The improvements in well-being were sustained a full year after the trial began. This suggests that the positive effects were not simply due to the novelty of the new schedule.

Ford's legacy reminds us that what seems impossible today may become tomorrow's standard. His five-day workweek wasn't just about giving workers more time off—it was about recognizing that human productivity and well-being are interconnected. As artificial intelligence and automation reshape the modern workplace, the question isn't whether work will change again, but how quickly we'll adapt to make it work better for everyone.