When the industrial revolution first came to Britain and the U.S.

, there was a high demand for labor. Families quickly migrated from the rural farm areas to the newly industrialized cities to find work. Once they got there, things did not look as bright as they did. To survive in even the lowest level of poverty, families had to have every able member of the family go to work. This led to the high rise in child labor in factories. Children were not treated well, overworked and underpaid for a long time. Wages and Hours: Children as young as six years old during the industrial revolution worked hard hours for little or no pay. Children sometimes worked up to 19 hours a day, with a one-hour total break. This was a little bit on the extreme, but it was not common for children who worked in factories to work 12-14 hours with the same minimal breaks. Not only were these children subject to long hours, but also, they were in horrible conditions. Large, heavy, and dangerous equipment was very common for children to be using or working near. Many accidents occurred injuring or killing children on the job. Not until the Factory Act of 1833 did things improve. Children were paid only a fraction of what an adult would get, and sometimes factory owners would get away with paying them nothing. Orphans were the ones subject to this slave-like labor. The factory owners justified their absence of payroll by saying that they gave the orphans food, shelter, and clothing, all of which were far below par. The child who was paid was paid very little. One boy explained this payment system: "They [boys of eight years] used to get 3d [d is the abbreviation for pence] or 4d a day. Now a man's wages is divided into eight eighths; at eleven, two eighths; at thirteen, three eighths; at fifteen, four eighths; at twenty, a man's wages About 15s [shillings]."

Child Labor Children were viewed as a source of cheap labor during the Industrial Revolution by factory owners, while families struggling to survive desperately needed what little money their children could earn. Children as young as six routinely worked 12 to 14 hour shifts with little to no break time. In addition to the long hours, children received a fraction of the wages their parents earned, and their jobs required them to use heavy, dangerous machinery with little consideration given to their safety. Yielding to public criticism, the British Parliament passed the Factory Act of 1833, which limited the number of hours children and women could work in textile factories. By contrast, the U.S. government successfully passed laws governing child labor during the 1930s. Factory Conditions Factory life was equally as difficult for adult laborers as for children. The average workday was between 13 to 15 hours a day, six, sometimes seven, days a week. Spent working under grueling and extremely dangerous work conditions, factories required untrained laborers to work machinery that could easily injure or maim an unlucky individual. Hazardous chemicals used in factories created toxic air quality that caused chronic health problems in workers, and even left some women barren. With no disability or compensation programs in place, injured laborers unable to work had little chance of finding a means of supporting themselves.

Factory Jobs Unlike agricultural jobs that required workers to complete a number of specific tasks, factory jobs required workers to spend 13 to 15 hours a day repeating the same mind-numbing task. While the economies of the U.S. and Great Britain grew during the Industrial Revolution, the relative wages of factory workers did not. Workers wages stagnated for decades, according to an article published by the University of Hawaii, even though prices continued to climb. Workers would not see an increase in wages until the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

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