There were many reasons the kids started working at age 8 and worked as many hours as the adults until the Child Labor Laws were out into affect. The other reason was the women did not get paid as much as men. Also, they did not get to have breaks and if you did they were very seldom. So if like you cut your hand you have to come back to work and if you were sick it didn't matter you were expected to come in still and work.
