Progressive Era Work Environments

¶ … Era

Worker Exploitation in the Progressive Era

The Progressive period was not as progressive as it sounds right off the bat. Employers were much different in the Progressive Era than today and often exploited vulnerable working class poor to stuff the pockets of a select few elite millionaires. Workers had very few rights and were treated as other minorities with little protection under the law. Ultimately, this caused much of the public to become disillusioned with the way capitalism had created a monster,

For one, many were uninterested in their workers' safety or welfare. Workers enjoyed very little freedoms and rights within their harsh work environments. Employers fought against legislation that would require them to pay minimum wages or enforce an eight hour work day. Thus, workers were often forced to work incredibly long hours with no days off and for very little. This caused employers to exploit the manual laborer of working class poor so that an elite few could make massive profits. Looking at business documents shows massive profits made by corporations run by the upper class, but there was very little of those profits that trickled down into the pockets of the workers of factories, mills, and mines. Often times, employers would take advantage of vulnerable minority groups. An influx of immigrants at the time made for cheap sources of labor that had very few rights within the work place. Workers had no legal rights when it came to protection against accidents or unfair labor practices. Thus, they were being treated in a very similar manner as other minorities, including African-Americans and Native Americans, who also had very few legal rights. These minority groups had no one to champion for them, and as a result had to deal with massive oppression for generations before labor and civil rights activities began to lobby for more public support.

This was also a hey day for child labor and many employers used child labor with little regard to how it could endanger or harm the children working in difficult factory jobs in the future. According to the 1905 speech made by Florence Kelly, over two million children were in working professions at the time, ranging from touch agricultural work to dangerous coal mines. A bulk of these children was under ten years old, but there was also a huge increase in teenage and young girl labor as well. Kelly describes the deafening conditions of these young girls working in textile mills throughout the night. The fact was that very few states had labor laws that restricted the maltreatment of employees, including children. Kelly's speech provides a very gloomy glimpse into factory life at the time for children and other vulnerable working groups. Workers were exploited and underpaid, all to meet the growing demands of consumerism. As more Americans began spending their disposable income, employers became more and more oppressive of workers in an attempt to maximize productivity and profits at the behest of the working poor.