people need more money!
Low paying jobs in the 1800's
Low wages in the 1800's
Low wages in the 1800's
Until about 1750, most people in Britain lived in small villages and farmed, raised animals, or worked as craftspeople. Farming families also spun wool or wove cloth in their homes to sell at the market. Men, women, and children worked hard every day of the week from morning until night, but most still struggled to earn a living. As the Industrial Revolution developed through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, more and more people moved away from their villages to work in mines and textile factories.
low wages in the 1800's
Making a definitive statement about the cost of living in Victorian England is difficult, particularly in the last half of the century, because the economy went through a long period of growth, followed by slumps at the end of the nineteenth century. A worker in 1870 might make 150% what a worker in 1850 made, but because different prices had increased at different rates, the actual buying power of the wages increased only moderately. At the end of the century, prices fell greatly, more rapidly than wages, so that despite a lower wage, the workers buying power actually increased.