Final answer:
Employers during the late 1800s hired children because they were cheaper than adults, could access tight spaces, and were important contributors to family income despite the negative impacts on their education and safety. Child labor was widespread until the early 20th century, when legislation and compulsory education laws greatly reduced the number of working children and improved literacy rates.
Step-by-step explanation:
Child Labor During the Late 1800s
During the late 1800s, employers favored hiring children for work in factories and mines due to several reasons. Children were often employed because they could be paid considerably less than adults, which was financially beneficial for employers.
They were also small and agile, allowing them to fit into tight spaces and tend to machinery that adults could not easily access. The census of 1900 indicated that about 18 percent of children between the ages of ten to fifteen were employed, with many working on family farms.
Families depended on the additional income that came from child labor, even though this often meant that children were deprived of an education and exposed to hazardous working conditions.
The increase in industrial work led to the employment of roughly 18% of children under the age of 16. These children were tasked with dangerous jobs such as cleaning machines and coal mining.
They were inexpensive to hire and replaceable, which made them appealing to factory owners. Not until the Progressive Era did substantial legislation and compulsory education laws begin to shift children from factories into schoolrooms.
By the twentieth century, greater mechanization of factories and increasing political pressure led to the eventual decline of child labor. New laws mandated schooling for children, reducing the number of children in formal wage work and improving literacy rates.
Despite the enactment of child labor laws, enforcement was not always strict, and it took time for child labor to be significantly reduced in the United States and other industrialized countries.