The correlation between higher wages and lower workforce turnover is a century-old science.

When Henry Ford invented the Five Dollar Day - twice the factory norm for its time - it wasn't because he wanted his workers to buy Model Ts, as legend has it. He did it because his employee turnover rate in 1913 was a gobsmacking 370 percent, and absenteeism on the Ford production line ran about 10 percent. That means he had to hire 52,000 workers each year just to maintain a workforce of 13,600 employees.

One year later, Ford added $2.50 in profit sharing to the $2.50 daily wage, and the result was an industrial powerhouse. The time it took for workers to build one car dropped from 12.5 hours to 93 minutes.

It's time to apply that lesson to the 10,000 workers at Newark Airport, which has a turnover rate of 40 percent, largely because its workforce has been stuck with a poverty wage since time immemorial.

These contract workers are just one board vote away from an 80-percent salary increase. The Port Authority commissioners are scheduled to vote on a wage hike that will deliver $15.60 next year and ramp up to $19 per hour by 2023. If you value the baggage handlers, cabin cleaners, wheelchair assistants and food service folks who make the airport run, you can help push this over the goal line: Public comment period ends June 10, so we encourage readers to send a note of support to wagepolicy@panynj.gov.

It's a long time coming - particular at Newark, where the $10.45 norm has been an egregious insult to human dignity by United Airlines and the vendors it hires, such as PrimeFlight.

"People cannot be expected to do their jobs well if they aren't paid well," agreed PA chairman Kevin O'Toole, whose agency sets the wage rules on PA properties. "This Board has heard the voices of airport employees who've shared their stories with us over the years. We know that higher wages won't only make a difference to them personally, but will have a significant impact in workplace morale and productivity."

Kevin Brown, whose SEIU 32-BJ union made this happen with five years of demonstrations, strikes, and heartbreaking tales of poverty, is gratified that the PA could set aside their shimmering new facilities and invest in human capital for a change. "Because it's pretty special when you can bring someone from $20,000 to nearly $40,000 - that's the beginning of trying to get into the middle class," he said.

But from the Port's perspective, this is sound business strategy - particularly as it relates to Henry Ford's bete noire.

In October, the UC-Berkeley Labor Center released a study of the work conditions and security performance at San Francisco Airport since its across-the-board wage hike for their 8,300 workers. The average wage increase was 22 percent, and across every demo, the results were astounding.

Turnover fell by an average of 34 percent overall. For contractors whose wages rose 10 percent or more, turnover fell 60 percent. Or consider this: After entry-level screeners received a 70-percent increase, their turnover declined by a whopping 80 percent.

In the end, the study concluded that the minimum wage did exactly what was intended: to give low-wage workers a better life, with little negative consequence in terms of job loss.

Now it's Newark-Liberty's turn - ditto for employees at Hoboken Terminal and Newark-Penn Station who work under the PA umbrella. The fight for health care and vacation pay is still to come. But restoring the dignity for 10,000 is a good start.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.