Original The New York Times Newspaper September 25,1926 Ford factory workers get the 40-hour week. On this day in 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. The decision to reduce the workweek from six to five days had originally been made in 1922. According to an article published in The New York Times that March, Edsel Ford, Henry, 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. We believe that in order to live properly every man should have more time to spend with his family.”

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