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Working Conditions
Expansion of Industry
The expansion of industry during the American Industrial Revolution had extraordinary effects on society.
Large new factories and awe-inspiring skyscrapers and bridges dotted the city skylines. Such projects demanded workers and millions responded coming from rural and foreign locales. However, these workers often faced horrific working conditions.
Working Conditions
Imagine a dark, dusty room with few windows, intense heat, and loud noises. Now, imagine you are a worker in such conditions and are paid a few cents a day to work a 12 hour shift for six days a week. How long would you elect to work in the position?
Labor in the Progressive Era
During the late 1800s, many of America's poor were forced to labor under such conditions on a daily basis. Laws regulating working conditions, hours, and wages were non-existent, often leaving families in a desperate situation.
Read Labor in the Progressive Era to learn more about working conditions and efforts to improve them.
Child Labor
In 1880, approximately 182,000 children age sixteen and under worked with little protection against illness or injury as a result of no health and safety restrictions.
Through the work of muckraking journalists, these horrors were exposed to the public. Progressive reformers like Florence Kelley (Through the work of muckraking journalists, these horrors were exposed to the public. Progressive reformers like Florence Kelley led crusades across the nation to pass child labor laws and other workplace reform measures.) led crusades across the nation to pass child labor laws and other workplace reform measures.
Living Conditions
Living Conditions
City life at the turn of the 20th century was not always glamorous. While the upper and middle classes enjoyed the luxuries of life, poor Americans and immigrants struggled to live in cramped, often unsanitary conditions.
Urban Problems
- Overcrowding was a major problem in large cities at the turn of the 20th century. The cities were busting at the seams.The millions of new immigrants who poured into America often started their new America life in the city slums with other poor Americans.
- Sanitation issues resulted from the lack of city services in the slum areas which often led to an environment ripe with disease. The stench of manure, open sewers, piled up garbage, and factory smoke filled the air.
- Crime also resulted from the overcrowding and poverty. Thieves thrived in an environment with police forces that were too small to keep up with the growing population.
- Fire hazards were also fueled by overcrowding, limited water, and volunteer only firefighters.
Tenement Living
To a visitor, cities were bustling places full of energy with towering skyscrapers and new modern conveniences. However, a closer look revealed cities full of tenements, filth, and pollution.
Tenement buildings, which were tall, narrow, six or seven-story apartment buildings known for housing multiple poor families in each dwelling in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, were often hastily constructed in urban areas to accommodate the masses who flocked to the cities. City services such as sewage, garbage disposal, and water purification were typically unavailable leaving the urban poor in filth and disease-ridden conditions.
Seeking Reform
Progressive reformers, including middle- class women and others, spearheaded reform efforts to improve the living conditions for the urban poor.
Read The Underside of Urban Life to learn more about the living conditions of the urban poor and the various efforts that attempted to generate reform and relief.
Jane Addams
In 1889, progressive reformer, Jane Addams, opened the Hull House, which served as a settlement house for the ethnic poor in Chicago.
Establishments such as the Hull House were created to provide child care, education, and assistance to poor Americans and immigrants.
Additional Links
Additional Links
Explore additional information about the Progressive Era urban poor:
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