Part of running for President of the United States means dealing with, not only individuals, but groups as well.  In today’s age, it means some of those groups are anonymous.

A viral image circulating on various social media sites claims Henry Ford created the eight-hour work day and the 40-hour work week, not unions.

PolitiFact Florida thought that seemed a little odd, so they checked it out.

PolitiFact writer Joshua Gillin rated the claim MOSTLY FALSE.

He said people should remember the Labor Movement was happening decades before the eight-hour work day and 40-hour work week began.

“There had been a lot of riots, and fighting.  Things going on long before Henry Ford in 1914 actually, so that part is wrong of that image, said,  ‘Okay.  Fine.  We’ll pay you five dollars an hour.  We’ll give you a 40-hour week.’ And it was not perfect.  I was not guaranteed.  There was not law that he had to do this,” Gillin said.

In fact, this wouldn’t become law for several more decades.

“It wasn’t until 1938 that this actually became law… when FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) signed the 40-hour work week into law,” Gillin said.

It’s also important to note Henry Ford was not the first employer to do give his employees eight-hour work days and 40-hour work weeks.  There were others before him.

SOURCES: Did Henry Ford created the 8-hour day & 40-hour work week?

• Shareable graphic, received by PolitiFact Sept. 6, 2015
• U.S. Department of Labor, "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage," accessed Sept. 8, 2015
• NBC News, "Where Did the 40-Hour Workweek Come From?" Sept. 1, 2014
• Illinois Labor History Society, "The Haymarket Affair," accessed Sept. 8, 2015
• History.com, "Ford factory workers get 40-hour week," accessed Sept. 8, 2015
• Email interview with Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at the University of California-Santa Barbara, Sept. 8, 2015
• Email interview with David Bensman, professor at Rutgers University's School of Management and Labor Relations, Sept. 8, 2015
• Email interview with Robert Bruno, professor with the University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations, Sept. 8, 2015
• Email interview with Priscilla Murolo, professor of history at Sarah Lawrence College, Sept. 8, 2015
• Email interview with Ileen A. DeVault, professor of labor relations, law and history at Cornell University, Sept. 8, 2015
• Email interview with Matt Anderson, curator of transportation at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Mich., Sept. 8, 2015