1. Working Conditions Problems that the urban factory worker faced
Piecework- pay based on how much you produce
10-12 hour work day
Poor air/ventilation/poor lighting
Low wages/competition from labor surplus
Capitalist/anti-worker sentiment in early US history
No insurance/job stability
35,000 deaths in year in factories
Child labor
Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

2. Women in the factory
Young men dying in Civil War left many open jobs and decreased the stigma of “old maid” working woman
1/3rd to ½ the pay as men
Made up between 25-40% of workforce
agriculture, domestic service, manufacturing, clerical
most women actually worked in the South in agriculture!
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
123 women, 23 men dead (most jumped to their death)
Doors were locked to prevent workers from taking breaks
Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

3. Child Labor
“There is a certain class of labor in mills where there is not as much muscular exercise required as a child would put forth in play, and a child can do it about as well as a grown person…There is such thing as too much education for working people sometimes. I have seen cases where young people are spoiled for labor by…too much refinement.”
Children started to work at age 5
Up to 19 hour days with 1 hr break (usually 12 hrs day/ 6 days a week)
Over 50% under 10 worked full time job in cities during Industrial Era
2 million under 15 by 1911
What does it say about the US now that most children do not work and go to school?
Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

4. Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

5. 10 and 12 year old working immigrants
How come I can’t work for more than ten hours.? My family is going to starve earning only seven dollars a week. It is not going to be enough. There are a lot of people in the streets most trying to make a living, but sometimes annoying people are yelling. I feel kind of lost mostly, and I don’t know what to do next.
I work in the sweat house with my dad. He is always sick. My mom and my sisters stay home and sew clothes. My mom gets depressed because of the heat and the fact that we have to sleep on the roof. My big brother is a good peddler and my dad is proud. My dad has to work nineteen hours a day, but I only work for fourteen hours.
Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

6. Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

7. Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

8. Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

9. Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

10. Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

11. Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

12. Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

13. Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

14. Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

15. Keating-Owen Act (1916)
Banned products made by child labor from being sold in interstate commerce
Declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court in Hammer vs. Dagenhart
Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?

16. Lochner vs. New York (1905)
NY state law (1896 Bakeshop Act) banned bakers from working more than 10 hrs a day or 60 hrs/week to protect the health of the workers
Supreme court overturns decision.. Why?
An individual has a general right (14th) to make contracts…. Government cannot deprive an individual the right to make $$
Aim: How could you describe the working conditions in the factories of the US?