Industrial Revolution Minimum Wage Analysis

During the Industrial Revolution, which took place over two centuries ago, the economy was that of laissez faire capitalism. The growths of technologies during the era lead to a massive increase in factory jobs for people of lower to middle class. However, the minimum wage at the time, much less a livable wage, had not been created for these factory workers. Due to the lack of regulation at the time no form of a minimum wage had to be paid, and often times people were paid little in compensation for their work at these factories. By analysing the average wages of factory workers versus the cost of food and other necessities during the industrial revolution it is made apparent that the lack of a minimum wage in the era of the industrial revolution,

This is — the employment of persons who would otherwise be idle (and in many cases a burthen on the community), either from the bypass of temper, habit, infirmity of body, or some other cause, indisposing, or disqualifying them for the toils of the Country” (Hamilton 252). A factory job was meant for women and children in order to subsidies costs around the household and to provide any extra compensation for new purchases for leisure. The primary take away from this passage is that a factory job alone could not support a family. The miniscule wages at the time were primarily all that the lower class of Americans had to live off of, due to factory work requiring little to no education. By discussing England, which also went through a similar revolution specific examples of this philosophy can be seen. The philosophy that no minimum wage for a factory worker versus that of a farmer caused there to be poverty amongst factory workers at the

Karl Marx has written on this issue,and has analyzed what causes these problems. Firstly, Karl Marx introduces the idea of a “wage slave” a person who primarily makes income from the work they do for others. The increase in factories also came with an increase in these “wage slaves”. The problem arose then, when it came to the corporations. In order to maximize profits the factory workers were paid minimally. A worker in the United States could expect to be paid 140 dollars a year, where the bare minimum amount to live is 150 dollars. People had an incentive to work in order to survive. Thusly, they would take these low paying jobs because they were ones that required no prior education to do. Had the factories had no workers then the minimum wage may have risen as an incentive to take these jobs. However, due to the qualifications of the jobs, this did not happen. The dichotomy of the hired and the hirer only served to incite the problem of minimum wage. In 1859 President Lincoln said in his address that, “If any continue through life in the condition of the hired laborer, it is not the fault of the system, but because of either a dependent nature which prefers it, or improvidence, folly, or singular misfortune” (Lincoln). The divide between the boss and worker, without equal distribution of power, is the primary factor that lead