Ages and Wages
Children as young as the ages of four and above worked 14 to about 16 hours a day , six days a week. For unskilled workers, they were payed $1.25 a day and almost you they were lucky. Employers paid the children less than women, who made less money than men. Textile mills employed children as young as seven years old to work around heavy machinery, sometimes resulting in serious injuries. Young boys worked in coal mines since their smaller bodies moved through tunnels more easily than grown men. Coal dust often settled in their lungs, shortening their lives. These working children toiled up to ten hours a day and did not go to school.
Working Conditions
Conditions were brutal for the children. Their small size made them perfect for getting into dangerous nooks and crannies to maintain or clean equipment that adults were too large for. It was not unheard of for child laborers to work 19 hour days with just a one hour break. Orphans were treated as "de facto" slaves , which are residents who are free to work or not work in government created jobs that don't pay well. Punishment for boys and girls who did not meet expectations was either verbal to physical abuse , “Weighting” was one of these punishments towards them. It was when young workers were forced to wear a heavy weight around their neck.