Sam.F
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Industrial Revolution Working Conditions: What Were They Like? - History
Examples of Industrial Revolution Working Conditions
Due to a high unemployment rate, workers were very easily replaceable and had no bargaining power with employers. There was an increase in population and landowners enclosed common village lands, forcing people from the country to go find work.
Wages were very low, women and children received less than half the wages of men and had to work the same amount of time.
There were no unions that could represent workers and the Combination Acts outlawed unionizing or protesting for better Industrial Revolution working condition
Most people worked between 12 and 16 hours per day, six days a week, without any paid holidays or vacation.
Safety hazards were everywhere, machines didn’t have any safety covers or fences and children as young as 5 years old were operating them. Iron workers worked in temperatures of 130 degrees and higher every day. Accidents on the job happened regularly.
In typical industrial revolution working conditions. people did not have many break times, there was usually only one hour-long break per day
Factories were dusty, dirty and dark – the only light source was sunlight that came in through a few windows. Because the machines ran on steam from fires, there was smoke everywhere. Many people ended up with eye problems and lung diseases.
Small children had to work in coal mines without candles (if the family was too poor to buy candles) and were beaten by miners if they fell asleep. Young girls had to pull sledges or carts with coal all day long, deforming their pelvic bones and causing a lot of deaths during childbirth.
Children did not get any sunlight, physical activity (apart from work) or education, which led to deformities and a shorter than average length.
Should someone get injured on the job and be unable to work, they would be abandoned, wages would be stopped immediately and no medical attendance would be given to them. Injured workers usually lost their jobs and did not get any compensation.
Unlike the country life they were used to, work in a factory was fast-paced and focused on production. No chit chat was allowed and those who still had family in rural areas could not head home to help with the harvest if they wanted to keep their jobs. So, to describe the industrial revolution working conditions as less than ideal would be a malicious understatement.
Why and how have these conditions changed? Keeping the workforce in the dark?
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