Laborers during the Gilded Age faced numerous harsh issues, including:
- Dangerous and unhealthy working conditions: Workers often labored around heavy machinery in poorly ventilated factories or mines, with frequent accidents and injuries. For example, steel mill workers sometimes endured seven-day workweeks, and miners worked 12 to 14 hours daily in hazardous environments
- Long hours and low wages: Typical workdays lasted 10 to 16 hours, six days a week, with wages so low that entire families, including women and children, had to work to survive. Women earned significantly less than men, and child labor was widespread, often with children working 14-hour days for minimal pay
- Lack of worker protections: Employees had no entitlement to vacation, sick leave, unemployment benefits, or compensation for workplace injuries, despite frequent accidents and fatalities-averaging hundreds of deaths weekly in some years
- Exploitation of women and children: Women faced discrimination and were often relegated to the lowest-paying jobs, such as sweatshops, where conditions were especially grueling. Child laborers worked in factories, mines, and sweatshops under dangerous conditions, sacrificing education and future prospects
- Suppression of labor organizing: Although workers formed unions to fight for better conditions and rights, management often used strikebreakers, legal tactics, and sometimes government intervention to weaken labor movements and maintain control
These issues contributed to significant labor unrest, including notable strikes like the Homestead and Pullman strikes, as workers sought to improve their wages, hours, and safety
