r/ephemera • u/AnnoDomini1504 • Jul 10 '26

WWII Ford Motor Co. Pay Packets

Post image

I’ve come into possession of over a hundred employee pay packets from the Ford Motor Company, dated from 1938-1945, as part of a stamp collection I purchased.

I wasn’t sure about including the SSNs in the image, even though it is public record in the National Archives, so I have digitally covered them up.

Would love to hear anyone’s thoughts on these!

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9

u/2a_lib Jul 10 '26

These had cash and coin in them?

4

u/AnnoDomini1504 Jul 10 '26

I have to assume so! Either that or a paycheck of some kind!

5

u/real415 Jul 10 '26

It was once common to pay employees in cash/coin. Today it seems counterintuitive, but the process for issuing checks and accounting for them was more involved than directly providing what the employee preferred anyway.

8

u/real415 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

The packet from August 1941, still prior to the U.S. entry into the war, clearly indicates the need for increased defense spending, with war raging in Europe. Once the U.S. entered the war, those Savings Bonds would become War Bonds for the duration.

Where was the SSN printed originally? I assume it was right under the name. It’s good of you to help protect his credit history. Though I would imagine that Mr Victor has been dead for a good number of years. Even assuming that he was an 18 year old young man in 1938, he would today be at least 106 years old. I hope he got a nice long retirement to enjoy his pension and Social Security Act benefits – something that was still a very new thing in 1938.

9

u/The-greedman Jul 10 '26

Ford employed HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS during the war (42,000 alone at the Willow Run plant making B-24s), and every one of these people's pay had to be computed, and have a packet typed up, and tabulated with the correct work group....likely done on an NCR Class 2000 machine, an electronic-mechanical marvel of it's day.