Why were children as young as seven years old used as factory labor?

Question

a) Children were seen as more malleable than adults, making factory discipline easier to impose, and they could be paid lower wages.
b) Factory owners never cared who worked for them or under what conditions.
Consider This: If an entire family worked, they could make a living wage with a little left over. See 7.6: Narrative: Children’s Work.
c) Religious teachers insisted that children enjoyed the rigorous conditions in the factories.
Consider This: If an entire family worked, they could make a living wage with a little left over. See 7.6: Narrative: Children’s Work.
d) For children, especially for orphans, working in factories gave them some semblance of a normal family life.
Consider This: If an entire family worked, they could make a living wage with a little left over. See 7.6: Narrative: Children’s Work.

Answer 1

a) Children were seen as more malleable than adults, making factory discipline easier to impose, and they could be paid lower wages.