Poor Working Conditions The Effects of Industrialization

Industrialization Review New influx of industry in cities. Factory jobs open up for people to work in Many of these industries were looking to hire cheapest labor. Immigrants, children and women taken advantage of most.

Poor Conditions Most jobs had 12+ hour work day Six day week, seven for steel mills. No vacation time, sick days, unemployment benefits or workers compensation for injuries on the job.

Poor Conditions Injury was common- on average in 1882, 675 workers were killed on the job each week. Factories were often dirty, poorly ventilated, and poorly lit leading to increased danger. The tasks laborers were doing were very repetitive, and often with dangerous equipment.

Women and Children To this point, women generally did not work outside the home. Children were employed to fill many of the new jobs introduced by industrialization. Both women and children were paid less than men and made them attractive to those looking to maximize profit. Many families needed everyone to work simply to survive. Nearly all the jobs women and children held were “unskilled”

Children in the Workplace Many children under the age of 15 and some as young as 5 held full time jobs. Most were inexperienced, exhausted and hungry leaving them more prone to accidents. Most children who worked did not attend any form of schooling and instead worked to allow their families to survive.

Wages at this time Children- often as low as 27 cents a day (14 hour day)- roughly $85 a year. Women- average of $269 a year Men- average of $498 a year. ------------------------------- Comparison- Andrew Carnegie in the same year made $23 million. Today, $498 a week is only ~$25,000 a year. That comes to $12.45 an hour.