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ABOUT WORKING CONDITIONS
1870-1940
Working Conditions in Factories
The working class in 1900
Even though the early 1900s are part of the Progressive Era, a majority of the working class didn’t experience the benefits of urban life. Many struggled to survive. The Library of Congress estimates that by 1904, one in three people living in the cities was close to starvation. Poor urban workers experienced overcrowded living conditions, dirty and poorly lit working conditions, insufficient clean water supplies, poor sewage methods and disease. The poor working class resided in slums and relied on low wages for basic survival. Many had a better standard of living as rural farmers in America or in their native homelands than in industrialized American cities.