Working Conditions in the 1800's

In the late 1800s the United States experienced huge industrial growth which created many manufacturing jobs. While industrialists (Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Carnegie) were gaining extraordinary wealth during this time, factory workers paid a price for the nation’s economic progress. Many factory laborers worked twelve hour shifts, often without any breaks.

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The increasing demand for manufactured goods across the nation resulted in the building of many larger factories.  Many companies cared little about their employees and more about  making a profit. 

Working Conditions

• Industrial laborers worked upwards of 10 or 12 hours a day, six days a week.  There was no “job security” as workers could be fired at any time and for any reason.

• Most factories and mines had unsafe and unhealthy work conditions where accidents happened frequently.  If a worker was injured badly and could no longer perform their job they were fired or forced to quit.

• At the turn of the 20th century (1900), more than one million women were working outside the home.

• Many women were forced to join the industrial workforce to help pay for food, rent and clothing for their families.

• With no laws to regulate workers’ salaries, women earned about half of what men did for the same work.

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Women in the Workforce

• Families living in crowded city apartments, barely making enough money to pay rent and buy food, forced many children to enter the industrial workforce.

• Hundreds of thousands of children under 16 years old worked in factories, mines, and sweatshops to bring home extra money to help their struggling families.

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Children in the Workforce