Transcript How do we increase efficiency?

Industrialization and
Changes in Work
Did this period expand the
American Dream or hinder
it?
Contributors to expansion
• Contributors to the
nation’s industrial
expansion…
– Abundant Natural
Resources
– Inventive Minds
– Risk-taking
entrepreneurs
– Millions of laborers
The Growing Work Force
• 1860-1900
– 14 million people
immigrated to the U.S.
•Labor Act of 1864
– Allows employers to pay
for immigrants passage to
the U.S. in return for them
agreeing to work for a
certain amount of time.
– 8 or 9 million Americans
moved to cities.
•Plentiful work
– Pull?
•Drought in 1887
– Push?
Increasing Efficiency
• By 1880’s, employers are attempting to
improve efficiency of their workers.
– How do we increase efficiency?
• Division of Labor
– Different tasks are performed by different
persons.
• Workers performed only one small task
over and over.
• How could we change the way we pay
workers to increase efficiency?
– Piecework
• Paying workers per item produced, not per
hour.
– Sweatshop
– A shop where employees worked long
hours at low wages usually producing
clothing.
• How would these changes affect the
relationship of the worker to their product
and their job?
– Workers did not care about the product.
– Workers resented their owners.
• Owners were rarely seen by workers.
– Manager system
“I regard my people as I
regard my machinery. So long
as they can do my work for
what I choose to pay them, I
keep them, getting out of them
all I can.”
Increasing Efficiency
• What were the benefits
of increased efficiency of
businesses?
– Prices of goods went
down dramatically.
– During the 1870s-1900,
the real GDP grew at the
average rate of about 7%
annually.
Work Environment
• What was the work
environment like for a
farmer?
– Work from sun up to sun
down.
– Work was varied.
• Factory work…
– Ruled by the clock.
• Start, stop, breaks, etc.
• Fines
– Not safe
• Noise, lighting, ventilation.
• Frequent fires and accidents.
– What sort of reforms will this
lead to?
Working Families
• 1880 – 5% of industrial
workforce was children.
• 1890’s – 1 in 5 of children
between 10 and 16 was
employed.
• Why child labor?
– Families needed money to
survive.
– Families in need relied on
private charities.
• Could only provide to very
neediest.
– No unemployment
insurance.
• Social Darwinism?
– Help to needy would
encourage idleness.