Working Conditions in the 1800's

The Industrial Age:
Labor

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.

Match

Match the following unsafe working condition with the photo.

• Steelworkers

• Coal Minors

• Garment workers

Suffered burns & lossed limbs in machine

Died in cave-ins and effects of dust.

labored in poorly ventilated sweatshops

• Suffered burns & lossed limbs in machine

• Died in cave-ins and effects of dust.

• labored in poorly ventilated sweatshops

Poll

What working condition would you dislike the most?

• 10-12 hour days

• work 6 days a week

• potential to lose a limb

• having no breaks

• 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

Open Ended

Summarize: What were working conditions like in the 1800's? Use 2 specific examples from the video in your answer.