Child Labor In The Industrial-Gilded Age

Labor in the industrial/gilded age was severely harsh and the workers were not treated how they should have been. The first thing that had been used as child labor which they were 16 or less. Second, you had long hours with very little pay, where they even had pay cuts even though they already had the small pay. Third, the working condition was very dangerous and caused a lot of deaths a year.

First, in the industrial age, the labor had soared increasing the amount of even child labor that occurred. They had worked long hours for little pay. They had been useful because of the fact of their size which let them fit into places that adults didn't. Then the managers and owners controlled children easier and could pay them even less than what …show more content…
You had long hours of adult labor in the factories where it was 12-16 hours a day 6 day a week. This was a huge thing because it overworks them to the point of exhaustion. Along with this, it was unskilled labor which it had not created a job security and you could easily replace the workers if needed. This was a huge thing because there was a huge labor force available because everyone wanted to work for whatever they could get paid for. This had been caused by the people that wanted to get out of the countryside and they went to the factories. Then you have the pay they were given which was very little. This was done because there was no union which regulated the amount they were paid. It was very simply put those factory owners didn't care about their workers it was all about profit and being the best that they could have been. These are some of the biggest reasons why we have the unions …show more content…
These were very common because once again they did not have any unions which caused them to regulate these. Machines didn't have any covering or any fences and kids as young as 5 years old would be operating them. Then they iron working would be working in temperatures up to 130 degrees every day. These made accidents happen frequently and caused a lot of death because they didn't care about the safety they only had them work. Then the factories were not kept clean. The machines ran off steam from the fires which caused the building to fill up with smoke. This would cause lung and eye problems which were very unhealthy along with the dust in the air. Then the factories were dark where the only light was sunlight coming from the few windows that they had. They had been extremely harsh on the children in coal mine making the children work in the dark if they couldn't afford candles. They would have the girls pull the coal carts which ended up causing hip problems making a lot of childbirths end in death. These are extremely different from today we have it a lot easier than what we have been given. With the unions now we are given a certain amount of work hours and then we have the safety conditions that are given. I don't understand how they were able to get away with doing that at the time especially with the child labor instead of