The labor question or labor problem was a concern in the late 19th century correlated to the life of the middle class in regards to working conditions, wages, and job security. By the second half of the 19th century, the United States was already well into the industrial revolution. This bought immense changes to work opportunity as big business profited more from increased production by machine and cut into workers opportunity who may be replaced by machine.
The middle and lower class workers responded by organizing unions and protesting through both peaceful and violent means. Eventually, government acts such as the fair labor standards (1938) created a minimum wage and the Department of Labor was created in 1913 for the purpose organizing and overseeing better conditions for workers
