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A Changing Workforce
By Cathy Pearl
Factories drew people to
cities. These people came
from all over the country
and all over the world. The
chance to go to work drew
people to this country.

Workers did not need to be skilled to work in a factory. Children quit

school and went to work as young as eight. Women who needed to
earn money for their families also went to work. Workers like these
who lacked skills could be paid less money. Women and children
were paid less than men. Immigrants were paid less than men born in
the United States.
People working in factories soon learned that one person could not
make enough money to feed his or her whole family. More and more
members of the family had to go to work. For some families, it meant
sending young children to work or going hungry.
If someone in the family who worked became sick or injured,
children as young as seven would have to go to work. It was either do
that or go hungry. Girls would quit school and get a job so their
brothers could stay in school.

Between 1860 and 1900,

about fourteen million
people came to this country.
Other countries in the world were struggling. The United States was
growing. All of these workers were needed to help the new factories
run.

This new workforce found that working in factories was not as easy
as they thought it would be. Factory workers faced hard and
dangerous jobs. The work was boring. The noise was so loud that
some workers went deaf. There were a lot of fires and accidents. In
1882, an average of 675 workers were killed on the job each week.

Most of the immigrants came from Germany, Ireland, and England in

the 1870s and 1880s. This is where many immigrants came from
before the Civil War started. But immigrants were also coming from
other countries like China.

With the jobs being so dangerous it would seem like workers would
be hard to find. They weren't. With the increased number of
immigrants coming to this country, there was always someone else
willing to do the job.

There were only so many people in this country who could go to

work. More immigration was needed so there would be more workers.
A law passed in 1864 let employers and immigrants agree to a
contract. The employer would pay for a person or a family to
immigrate to this country. In return, the immigrants had to work for a
certain time to pay back the money.

Factory workers soon started fighting for better working conditions.

Their struggle led to better working conditions for all Americans.

More people who used to be farmers also moved to the cities. About
sixty percent of the workforce worked on farms in 1860. Forty years
later less than forty percent of the work force still worked on farms.
The rest worked in factories.
Workers left farms for many different reasons. There were droughts
in part of the country. Farmers had to struggle. Prices for what they
were growing started to drop. Few farmers made enough money to
make ends meet. Work in a factory seemed easier than work on a
farm.

A Changing Workforce

Questions
1. Which factory workers were paid the most money?
A. Men
B. Children
C. Women

If you had to choose, would you rather have worked on a farm or a

factory? Explain your choice.

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2. One person working in a factory made enough to take care of

the whole family.
A. True
B. False
3. Name three countries that immigrants came from in the 1870s
and 1880s.

4. Why did farmers leave their farms and go to work in factories?

A. There were droughts.
B. Farmers were paid less for what they grew.
C. Both A and B
5. On average, how many workers were killed each week in
1872?

6. Why were many factory jobs dangerous?

A. Business owners took good care of their workers.
B. There were fires.
C. Workers worked short hours.

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Should women and children have been paid the same amount as men?
Explain your answer.