Workplace Reform

Workplace Reform History

With the benefits of industrialization also came a host of problems. As industry leaders were accumulating extreme wealth, their workers struggled to make ends meet. Often, they could not even afford to buy the goods they produced. Unfortunately, workers did not find much support for their plight during the Gilded Age. In fact, even the government seemed to be under the thumb of big business.

Outside of low wages, workers faced extremely long hours and a host of dangers on the job. Accidents and deaths were exceptionally common because of a lack of regulation, and without any workmen’s compensation, an accident or death could leave a family homeless and starving.

Workplace Reform in the Progressive Era

It was during the Progressive Era that workplace reform finally found widespread support.

Workplace Reform in the Progressive Era: The Growth of Labor Unions

The abuses of industry leaders led to the creation of labor unions across various professions. Members came together to protect their interests through strikes and boycotts. One of the first and most preeminent organizations was the American Federation of Labor (AFL), founded in 1886. The AFL limited its membership to skilled workers, so other labor unions formed to fill the gap. In 1905, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) formed and opened its doors to unskilled workers.

For the most part, labor unions took on an anti-immigrant position. They believed that immigrants were flooding the labor market and accepting less pay, leading to lower wages for everyone. The Women’s Trade Union League, founded in 1903, was a notable exception. It brought together middle-class reformers and immigrant workers.

Workplace Reform in the Progressive Era: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 was a significant event in the push for workplace reform. On a typical Saturday afternoon, a fire broke out on the eighth floor of the Triangle Waist Company factory building. The fire escapes proved unstable and locked exit doors prevented the workers, mainly women, from leaving the building. In a desperate attempt to escape, some workers jumped out the windows to their death. The tragedy took 146 lives and was entirely preventable.

Fig. 2 - firefighters at the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Workplace Reform in the Progressive Era: Women and Children

The subject of many workplace reforms were women and children, whose conditions both gained particular sympathy from the public. One of the larger victories for women was Muller v. Oregon. Oregon had enacted a 10-hour workday for women and fined the owner of a laundry company, Curt Muller, for violating the law. The case went before the Supreme Court in 1908 which decided against Muller and affirmed the 10-hour workday for women.

Children as young as six or seven worked alongside adults in dangerous conditions, from factory work to mining. In response to public outcry, states began enacting minimum age laws and prohibiting unsafe working conditions.

Workplace Reform Goals and Successes

Although the Progressives were not always united in goals, workplace reform had almost universal support. As a result, state and local governments passed a variety of legislation to improve the condition of workers including:

• Reduced work hours

• Health and safety standards

• Workmen’s compensation

• Minimum wages

• Prohibitions against child labor

Workplace reform also found support at the federal level. When President Theodore Roosevelt came to office in 1901, one of the main goals of his “Square Deal” domestic policy was to reign in corporations, which had become all-powerful during the Gilded Age.

Fig. 3 - Theodore Roosevelt

President Roosevelt’s successors, Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft, continued his legacy of dismantling large corporations and protecting workers’ rights in their own candidacies