# Because He Had Suffered, He Wanted His Employees to Prosper

Given that the era of eight-hour workdays and dazzling benefits is now commonplace, looking back over 100 years ago, Milton Hershey's approach as the founder of Hershey's Chocolate is still truly admirable.

He paid his employees above-market wages, distributed bonuses, and shared company profits. As early as 1909, he launched a profit-sharing plan, directly allocating 20% of annual profits to his workforce.

To solve workers' housing problems, he built Hershey, Pennsylvania. Workers lived in single-family cottages with lawns (limited in quantity, prioritized for senior employees). Most ordinary workers had two-bedroom, one-bathroom homes, while temporary workers and single youth had single rooms or four-person dormitories, equipped with bathrooms, communal bathing facilities, dining halls, and other basic amenities.

Rent was approximately 50% below market rates.

Beyond housing, he built a zoo, amusement park, theater, gymnasium, and even a golf course in the town. He also installed an advanced electric tram system at the time, making it convenient for workers to commute and travel into the city.

Milton didn't want to remain a perpetual landlord forever—he hoped workers could truly own their homes. Hershey Company specifically established a credit department offering low-interest mortgage loans. As long as employment was stable and there were no negative records, workers could apply. The repayment plan was very humane, typically not exceeding 25% of wages.

As a result, decades after Hershey, Pennsylvania was built, most of the rental tenants became homeowners. In that era, this provided many people with genuine life stability.

Milton himself was truly self-made, with only a fourth-grade education and three bankruptcies before age 40. By today's standards, he'd be the typical case of consecutive startup failures, debt-ridden, and blacklisted by credit agencies.

It wasn't until age 40 that he turned things around by selling caramel. Most people would naturally buy mansions and yachts at that point, but he didn't. He sold his thriving caramel company for 1 million dollars and invested all of it into milk chocolate, which was extremely expensive at the time.

Back then, chocolate was a Swiss patent, accessible only to the aristocracy. Milton said no way—ordinary people should be able to afford it too. This led to the later mass-market Hershey's Chocolate, transforming it into a common snack for the masses.

In 1912, he had purchased a ticket for the Titanic but didn't make it due to last-minute business. It seems even heaven thought this man still had value; it just wasn't his time yet.