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What were some issues laborers faced during the Gilded Age?

What were some issues laborers faced during the Gilded Age?

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What were some issues laborers faced during the Gilded Age?
The Gilded Age: Factories & Sweatshops Context One of the largest employers, the steel mills, often demanded a seven-day workweek. Seamstresses, like factory workers in most industries, worked 12 or more hours a day, six days a week. Employees were not entitled to vacation, sick leave, unemployment compensation, or reimbursement for injuries suffered on the job. Yet injuries were common. In dirty, poorly ventilated factories and workers had to perform repetitive, mind-dulling tasks, sometimes with dangerous or faulty equipment. They were expected to be a part of an assembly line, engaging in unskilled labor to mass produce a product such as the Ford Model T. In 1882, an average of 675 laborers were killed in work-related accidents each week. In addition, wages were so low that most families could not survive unless everyone held a job. Between 1890 and 1910, for example, the number of women working for wages doubled, from 4 million to more than 8 million. Twenty percent of the boys and 10 percent of the girls under age 15-some as young as five years old-also held full-time jobs. With little time or energy left for school, child laborers gave up their futures to help their families make ends meet. In sweatshops, or workshops in tenements rather than in factories, workers had little choice but to put up with the conditions. This kind of work required few skills, and was often the only avenue open to women and children. Not surprisingly, sweatshop jobs paid the lowest wages-often as little as 27 cents for a child's 14-hour day. In 1899, women earned an average of $267 a year, nearly half of men's average pay of $498. The very next year Andrew Carnegie made $23 million-with no income tax.
Transcribed Image Text:The Gilded Age: Factories & Sweatshops Context One of the largest employers, the steel mills, often demanded a seven-day workweek. Seamstresses, like factory workers in most industries, worked 12 or more hours a day, six days a week. Employees were not entitled to vacation, sick leave, unemployment compensation, or reimbursement for injuries suffered on the job. Yet injuries were common. In dirty, poorly ventilated factories and workers had to perform repetitive, mind-dulling tasks, sometimes with dangerous or faulty equipment. They were expected to be a part of an assembly line, engaging in unskilled labor to mass produce a product such as the Ford Model T. In 1882, an average of 675 laborers were killed in work-related accidents each week. In addition, wages were so low that most families could not survive unless everyone held a job. Between 1890 and 1910, for example, the number of women working for wages doubled, from 4 million to more than 8 million. Twenty percent of the boys and 10 percent of the girls under age 15-some as young as five years old-also held full-time jobs. With little time or energy left for school, child laborers gave up their futures to help their families make ends meet. In sweatshops, or workshops in tenements rather than in factories, workers had little choice but to put up with the conditions. This kind of work required few skills, and was often the only avenue open to women and children. Not surprisingly, sweatshop jobs paid the lowest wages-often as little as 27 cents for a child's 14-hour day. In 1899, women earned an average of $267 a year, nearly half of men's average pay of $498. The very next year Andrew Carnegie made $23 million-with no income tax.
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