What effect did the Industrial Revolution have on the workers?

Machines enabled manufacturers to replace workers by substituting manual work with machines. However this did not mean that the working conditions improved.

The scientific division of work invented by Taylor gave workers repetitive and boring tasks with which few initiatives could be taken by them. New conditions of work appeared and lethal elements in the industries, either the chemical industry, the mining industry or the steel inustry could detrimental to the workers' health.

Industrialization combined itself with urbanization, and it thus led to a overcrowding of cities and rural exodus. This environment was propitious to the spread of diseases since sanitary conditions were very poor.

There was a tremendous pressure on wages due to the rural exodus and the demographic growth that made the working force plenty.