• 在阿斯彭思想节（Aspen Ideas Festival）上，福特CEO吉姆·法利透露，他从资深员工处获悉，公司的一些年轻工人为维持生计不得不在亚马逊（Amazon）兼职轮班。他表示，他借鉴了1914年创始人亨利·福特将工厂日薪提高到5美元、将临时工转为正式员工的决策。此前因薪资过低，年轻人普遍对制造业岗位避而远之。
1914年1月，汽车业先驱亨利·福特将工厂日薪提高至5美元，是当时八小时工作制平均工资的两倍以上。经济学家认为此举催生了20世纪的美国中产阶级。
百余年后的今天，面对众多员工“勉强糊口”的现状，福特CEO吉姆·法利坦言他借鉴了创始人的策略。
法利上周五在阿斯彭思想节接受记者兼传记作家沃尔特·艾萨克森采访时表示，在与工会合同谈判期间，他在与资深员工交流时获悉，公司的年轻员工因低薪被迫兼职多份工作且严重睡眠不足，他意识到公司需要进行改革。
法利表示：“在公司任职时间较长的员工告诉我：‘年轻人都不愿来这里工作。吉姆，你给的时薪才17美元，他们承受着巨大压力。’”
法利得知部分工人先在亚马逊工作8小时，再到福特轮班7小时，每日仅睡三四小时。公司因此将临时工转为正式员工，使其有资格获得更高薪资、利润分成支票及更优医疗保障。该政策在2019年与全美汽车工人联合会（United Auto Workers，UAW）的合同谈判中确立，规定临时工在福特连续工作两年后可转正为正式员工。
法利表示：“过程并不轻松。代价高昂。但我认为这正是我们国家需要推动的变革。”
1914年，福特将工厂薪资翻倍并非出于慈善，而是为了吸引稳定劳动力，同时刺激工人消费福特产品。
法利表示：“创始人曾说：‘我这样做是要让我的工人买得起我的车。只要收入足够多，他们就会购买自家产品。’这在某种意义上是一种自我实现的预言。”
年轻技工招聘困境
作为提升美国制造业生产力以支撑实体经济的倡导者，法利力主为年轻工人提供丰富的行业工作经验。
他表示：“政府必须切实重视对技工学校和技术行业的投入。在德国，我们每名工厂工人都有从初中阶段培养的学徒。每个岗位背后都有经过八年专业培训的储备人才。”
尽管德勤（Deloitte）和制造业研究所（Manufacturing Institute）预测到2033年美国将新增380万个制造业岗位，但年轻一代工人普遍避开该职业路径。Soter Analytics公司2023年的研究显示，虽然Z世代就读技工学校的人数增长，但新就业群体因为低薪基本避开了工厂工作。美国制造业平均时薪为25美元（年收入约51,890美元），低于全美平均年薪66,600美元。
虽然福特等美国车企努力增加制造业对年轻人的吸引力，但仍难以消除员工对薪资的不满。2023年，包括1.66万名福特员工在内的数千名UAW成员举行罢工，最终在当年10月达成协议。协议中除涨薪外，还将临时工转正成为全职员工的年限进一步缩短。
法利从管理层角度称此次罢工“完全没有必要”，并强调提高技工薪资并非福特的一己之责。
他表示：“我们不能坐等形势好转。历经120年发展，我们拥有解决问题的资源和专业技术，但仍需各界更多支持。”（*）
译者：刘进龙
审校：汪皓
• 在阿斯彭思想节（Aspen Ideas Festival）上，福特CEO吉姆·法利透露，他从资深员工处获悉，公司的一些年轻工人为维持生计不得不在亚马逊（Amazon）兼职轮班。他表示，他借鉴了1914年创始人亨利·福特将工厂日薪提高到5美元、将临时工转为正式员工的决策。此前因薪资过低，年轻人普遍对制造业岗位避而远之。
1914年1月，汽车业先驱亨利·福特将工厂日薪提高至5美元，是当时八小时工作制平均工资的两倍以上。经济学家认为此举催生了20世纪的美国中产阶级。
百余年后的今天，面对众多员工“勉强糊口”的现状，福特CEO吉姆·法利坦言他借鉴了创始人的策略。
法利上周五在阿斯彭思想节接受记者兼传记作家沃尔特·艾萨克森采访时表示，在与工会合同谈判期间，他在与资深员工交流时获悉，公司的年轻员工因低薪被迫兼职多份工作且严重睡眠不足，他意识到公司需要进行改革。
法利表示：“在公司任职时间较长的员工告诉我：‘年轻人都不愿来这里工作。吉姆，你给的时薪才17美元，他们承受着巨大压力。’”
法利得知部分工人先在亚马逊工作8小时，再到福特轮班7小时，每日仅睡三四小时。公司因此将临时工转为正式员工，使其有资格获得更高薪资、利润分成支票及更优医疗保障。该政策在2019年与全美汽车工人联合会（United Auto Workers，UAW）的合同谈判中确立，规定临时工在福特连续工作两年后可转正为正式员工。
法利表示：“过程并不轻松。代价高昂。但我认为这正是我们国家需要推动的变革。”
1914年，福特将工厂薪资翻倍并非出于慈善，而是为了吸引稳定劳动力，同时刺激工人消费福特产品。
法利表示：“创始人曾说：‘我这样做是要让我的工人买得起我的车。只要收入足够多，他们就会购买自家产品。’这在某种意义上是一种自我实现的预言。”
年轻技工招聘困境
作为提升美国制造业生产力以支撑实体经济的倡导者，法利力主为年轻工人提供丰富的行业工作经验。
他表示：“政府必须切实重视对技工学校和技术行业的投入。在德国，我们每名工厂工人都有从初中阶段培养的学徒。每个岗位背后都有经过八年专业培训的储备人才。”
尽管德勤（Deloitte）和制造业研究所（Manufacturing Institute）预测到2033年美国将新增380万个制造业岗位，但年轻一代工人普遍避开该职业路径。Soter Analytics公司2023年的研究显示，虽然Z世代就读技工学校的人数增长，但新就业群体因为低薪基本避开了工厂工作。美国制造业平均时薪为25美元（年收入约51,890美元），低于全美平均年薪66,600美元。
虽然福特等美国车企努力增加制造业对年轻人的吸引力，但仍难以消除员工对薪资的不满。2023年，包括1.66万名福特员工在内的数千名UAW成员举行罢工，最终在当年10月达成协议。协议中除涨薪外，还将临时工转正成为全职员工的年限进一步缩短。
法利从管理层角度称此次罢工“完全没有必要”，并强调提高技工薪资并非福特的一己之责。
他表示：“我们不能坐等形势好转。历经120年发展，我们拥有解决问题的资源和专业技术，但仍需各界更多支持。”（*）
译者：刘进龙
审校：汪皓
• Ford CEO Jim Farley learned from older employees that some young workers at the carmaker were taking shifts at Amazon to make ends meet, he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Farley said he drew on founder Henry Ford’s decision to raise factory wages to $5 a day in 1914 to make temporary workers into full-time employees. Young people have previously eschewed manufacturing jobs due to low wages.
Some economists credit carmaker Henry Ford for jump-starting the American middle class in the 20th century when, in January 1914, he hiked factory wages to $5, more than double the average wage for an eight-hour work day.
More than 100 years later, facing the reality of many employees “barely getting by,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said he took a page out of the founder’s playbook.
The carmaker’s chief executive recognized the need to make a change in his workplace when he spoke to veteran employees during union contract negotiations and learned young Ford employees were working multiple jobs and getting inadequate sleep due to low wages, Farley said in an interview with journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Friday.
“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,’” Farley said.
Farley learned some workers also held jobs at Amazon, where they worked for eight hours before clocking in to a seven-hour shift at Ford, sleeping for only three or four hours. As a result, the company made temporary workers into full-time employees, making them eligible for higher wages, profit-sharing checks, and better health care coverage. The transition was outlined in 2019 contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW), with temporary workers able to become full-time after two years of continuous employment at Ford.
“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.”
Ford’s own decision to double factory wages in 1914 was not altruistic, but rather a strategy to attract a stable workforce, as well as provide a stimulus for his own workers to be able to afford Ford products.
“He said, ‘I’m doing this because I want my factory worker to buy my cars. If they make enough money, they’ll buy my own product,’” Farley said. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way.”
Trouble attracting young trade workers
Farley, a proponent of growing U.S. manufacturing productivity to support the essential economy, has advocated for young workers to have strong trade experiences.
“Our governments have to get really serious about investing in trade schools and skilled trades,” he 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.”
Despite the U.S. seeing 3.8 million new manufacturing jobs by 2033, according to Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, the younger generation of workers has largely turned away from the career path. Gen Z enrollment in trade schools is on the rise, but the newest generation entering the workforce is largely eschewing factory jobs, citing low wages, according to a 2023 Soter Analytics study. U.S. manufacturing jobs in the U.S. have an average $25-per-hour wage—about $51,890 per year—falling short of the average American salary of $66,600.
American carmakers like Ford may be trying to make it appealing for young workers to embark on manufacturing careers, but they are still not immune to workers’ grievances over wages. In 2023, thousands of UAW members, including 16,600 Ford employees, went on strike before reaching a contract deal in October of that year, which, beyond increasing wages, also further decreased the period of time necessary for a temp worker to become full-time.
Farley called the strike “completely unnecessary” from management’s perspective and maintained the onus of improving trade workers’ wages isn’t just on Ford.
“We’re not just going to hope it gets better,” he said. “We have the resources, and we have the know-how, after 120 years, to solve these problems, but we need more help from others.”