The 7 Biggest Impacts the Industrial Revolution had on the Working Class

The Industrial Revolution of the late 18th to early 19th centuries brought sweeping economic and social changes worldwide. Most apparent during this period was the transition from reliance on human or animal labor to mechanized production. A new technological culture also started to change how work was done. As the Industrial Revolution advanced, the idea of what counted as work changed as factories replaced small-scale production.

Mass production using machinery became commonplace, so the working class had to change how they lived. Some historians see it as a breakthrough in human cultural development. Rapid economic growth during this period brought visible changes to the working class’s lives. In this chapter, we will discuss the seven most prominent ways that the Industrial Revolution affected the working class and their reality.

Urbanization: The Rise of Industrial Cities on Both Sides of the Atlantic

Urbanization was to some extent inevitable. Factory growth required a workforce, and migration from rural areas to newly industrialized cities became a dominant social trend in both the UK and the US. The UK’s major new urban centers were Manchester (nicknamed “Cottonopolis”), Liverpool, and Birmingham.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the growth of Pittsburgh and its steel industry, as well as Lowell, Massachusetts, and its textile mills, pulled an industrial workforce to those cities. The process soon engulfed most of the modernizing world. In most countries, factories and new urban settlements mushroomed, becoming the dominant workplaces.

Problems, however, inevitably followed. Cities were often unprepared for these population pressures and failed to provide for their new inhabitants. Overcrowding was a massive problem. The poorest lived in tenements where whole families shared one room with other families on each floor. Sanitation was often poor and would lead to problems such as cholera in the poorer areas of the rapidly growing cities in the US and the UK.

Working Conditions: Grueling Realities Inside the Factories

Work in the pre-industrial world was vastly different from what it would become in post-industrial times. In fact, most of the working class did work that reflected agrarian life, with its seasons and changing tasks. However, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, people began working in factories, where machines, steam, and the clock held dominion.

Workers were penned in large rooms and forced to work as part of an enormous human machine. In fact, not only were the workers to perform the same task over and over again, a simple action as a cog in a larger process, but they would also work grueling hours. Instead of a 12-hour workday being considered unconscionably long, a 16-hour day was normal. Workers also had to work in a state of exhaustion. After all, the factory needed to keep production going, so workers had little rest.

Fatigue and monotony were only some of the working class’s problems. In the early Industrial Revolution, worker safety mattered little. Factories were rife with belts, gears, and steam, and it was easy to get caught in them and suffer a serious injury or death. This lack of safety, along with the brutal work many performed, fueled a familiar cry during the early Industrial Revolution: the demand for better working conditions.

Child Labor during the Industrial Revolution

One of the most lamentable aspects of the Industrial Revolution was the use of child labor. The image of children working in the same factories as adults was not a strange sight to see in this time period, and the idea of such small children (even babies) being in the factories for such a long period of time in horrific conditions is one of the most pitiful things to come from this time of industrial growth.

Children were given specific jobs in these factories, and one of the main factors in which job a child was assigned was their size. Children were so small that they could change spools, fix small machine problems, and even crawl through tight spaces that larger people could not fit into. The only other reason for the use of child labor was the mentality towards children during this period of time.

People did not view children as special or important as they do now. In fact, in some cases, people viewed children as a nuisance. Children of the poor were no exception, and for this reason, they were sent off to work in factories. The factories were more than happy to exploit this low-income labor for less pay than they would pay a normal adult worker.

However, this was not the only issue during this time. The physical and mental toll the work took on these children was extensive. Children who were sent to work in these factories were forced to work for long hours and long days, time when they could have been at home having a childhood and learning. They were also much more likely to get injured in accidents and to suffer long-term health effects.

The Shift to Wage Labor: A Double-Edged Sword

Work and employment during the industrial age were different from the pre-industrial age. Before the Industrial Revolution, most people engaged in subsistence farming, handicraft, or petty trade. They often worked in family or community units and had direct access to and control over the means of production and their products. This work gave individuals a sense of purpose and outcome in their labor and a direct impact on their economic well-being.

The Industrial Revolution transformed work and employment in significant ways. The rise of factories and mass production created a new class of workers who sold their labor to factory owners in exchange for a fixed wage. This new mode of work was called wage labor, or salaried work. The new form of work changed the relationship between workers and their labor products. Instead of producing goods themselves, workers became part of a larger system of production and distribution, often with no direct connection to the finished product. This could lead to alienation and disconnection from their work.

Moreover, dependence on wages made workers vulnerable to economic fluctuations. While a fixed wage could provide stability and security during prosperous times, workers could face unemployment or wage cuts during economic downturns. Their livelihoods depended on factory owners and managers, who could close operations or lay off workers at any time. In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution brought economic growth and prosperity for many but also new challenges and uncertainties for the working class, who had to adapt to a new mode of work and employment.

The Rise of Labor Movements: A Quest for Dignity and Rights

In an era when industrialization was on the rise and successful, factory owners and their relatives were prospering from the products that were churned out by their large production machines at their factories; at the same time, the working class at those factories was feeling the lack of provisions from their employers, be it in the form of working conditions, low pay, or rest, which were all that the employees were getting at the pinnacle of the Industrial Revolution. The unions and workers’ groups that were there at the time of these trying times soon after began to form because of the conditions of their livelihoods, a pitiable life.

The treatment these workers endured in industrial workplaces was enough to spark a labor movement. It is not hyperbole to state that the unions which began in those times were mutinies which the dejected working-class community staged against the overfed factory owners and their lackeys.

They wanted to make the industrial world a place where they would no longer be at the complete mercy of their employers; they fought so they could at least get some rest from the nonstop schedule that overworked them. They fought for at least a modicum of workplace safety, a just work environment, and fair pay for their labor.

The workers who began to unionize fought for the pay and conditions they were owed. The labor force, no matter how much effort they put into their strikes and go-slows, used them to draw attention to their demands so that factory owners would consider them.

They had some successes on some issues; however, factory owners, in most cases, had the upper hand and retaliated, either figuratively and sometimes, in actual cases, literally, by beating the working class right back down to their knees. Private security details were called in; in some extreme cases, the state militia was coerced to deal with the protesting masses. Strikes and protests were quelled; however, through it all, the labor movement was heard, and many of its original demands are now rights workers are entitled to from their employers.

Social Stratification: The Wealth Divide in the Era of the Industrial Revolution

As smoke billowed and the gears of progress churned during the Industrial Revolution, one unintended and often overlooked effect was the growing disparity between rich and poor. The colossal machinery of industry ground on, and the tectonic plates of capitalism shifted, heralding the age of the super-rich. The factory owners, the investors, and the industrial barons – the new money class known as the “nouveau riche” or “captains of industry” – were swimming in wealth that, by previous standards, was astronomical. They inhabited palatial estates, waltzed at opulent balls, and their influence touched both near and far.

At the other end of the financial spectrum, the tens of thousands of factory workers, coal miners, and laborers were working for next to nothing. While their bosses were making the most money of their lives, these factory workers were grinding away at the same soulless, repetitive tasks for hours on end in the grime and dirt of a filthy factory, only to return to just as filthy living conditions.

While the newly moneyed were feasting at extravagant banquets, there were those in the industrial cities with not enough food to fill the stomach of a single child. These children worked in the mines and factories to help put food on the table at home. Families were living together in the dark and putrid tenements, jammed in like rats in a sack.

In some cities, the poverty-stricken slums could not have been more different from the beautiful mansions and lavish estates of the nouveau riche. It was one thing to have one side being filthy rich and the other side being dirt-poor. But the city itself became a patchwork of haves and have-nots, as different areas became microcosms of wealth and poverty.

This division between the nouveau riche and the destitute working class was more than a matter of material wealth. It fueled social and political unrest that would not simmer down easily. For many in the poorest and working classes, the gap in quality of life, opportunity, and future prospects could not be ignored. It would eventually spark social reform and political movements that sought to correct these inequities.

The Echoes of Industrial Change

One can conclude in hindsight that the Industrial Revolution, from individual craftsmanship to machine mass production, changed the working class. The labor of artisans, craftsmen, and farmers, who had significant control over their work and daily lives, was disrupted by fixed factory hours, machines that regulated tasks, and dependence on wages. The shift from wage reliance to workers’ rights and from wealth distribution to skills adaptability has rippled through economic and social unrest among the working class.

On the other hand, one positive change in retrospect is that the Industrial Revolution paved the way for the contemporary working class. The adversities and difficulties Industrial Revolution workers faced led to a movement that advocated better working conditions and greater worker solidarity and unity, which would influence labor movements for future generations. The working class of the modern day owes much to the Industrial Revolution; from rights and legal protections to employment, the past still looms over the working world today.