Florence Moltrop Kelley (September 12, 1859 – February 17, 1932) was an American social and political reformer who coined the term wage abolitionism.

Pugh's decision to deny use of cotton and sugar because of the connection to slave labor made an impression on Kelley from an early age.

In Zurich, she met various European socialists, including Polish-Russian medical student Lazare Wischnewetzky, whom she married in 1884 and with whom she had three children;[6] the couple divorced in 1891.

Her 1885 translation of the latter's The Condition of the Working Class in England into English was published with Engels' approval in 1887, under her married name "Mrs. F. Kelley Wischnewetzky," and is still used today.

After college, Kelley assisted with the establishment of the New Century Guild branch of Philadelphia, along with Gabrielle D. Clements and led by Eliza Sproat Turner.

[5] The New Century Guild intended to increase the quality of working and living condition of the lower class in urban areas.

[8] The organization helped lead the battle for labor laws, such as the minimum wage and the eight-hour days, at the local, state, and federal levels.

[9] While at Hull House, Kelley bonded with Jane Addams and Julia Lathrop, who worked together as major labor reformers.

[9] She also became friends with Grace and Edith Abbott as well as Alice Hamilton, a professional physician specialized in preventing occupational diseases.

In 1892, Kelley conducted a survey of Chicago's slums at the request of U.S. Commissioner of Labor, Carroll D. Wright,[5] after Henry Demarest Lloyd recommended her.

Later in 1892 Kelley proposed investigating the "sweating system", "the practice of contracting out work to homes of the poor," in Chicago to the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Illinois legislature passed the first factory law limiting work for women to eight hours a day and prohibiting the employment of children under the age of fourteen.

As a member of the board of directors, she belonged to committees on Nomination, The Budget, Federal Aid to Education, Anti-Lynching, and the Inequality Expenditure of School Funds.

DuBois believed that there should be a clause added specific to race because it would require the federal government to enforce that the schools for black people to be treated fairly.

Kelley believed that it was more important to pass the legislation, even in its limited form, so that the funding would be secured and the primary principle of social welfare would be established.

Eventually, Kelley, earned the support of the NAACP on the issue with the promise to monitor the bill if it passed and to work tirelessly toward the equity of all, regardless of race.

[14] In 1917, she marched in the New York silent protest parade, opposing the violence of white citizens against black people in the East St. Louis, Illinois, race riots of that year.

Despite the League's lack of action, Kelley provided a series of letters to Arthur B. Spingarn of the NAACP in 1926 about the many cases of lynching in the United States.

Kelley used her power in Congress by her personal connections to avoid discrimination from being passed in laws, especially toward expenditure toward school funds.

In 1921, she pushed the Board of Directors of the NAACP to oppose bills that discriminate based on race in expenditure toward school funds.

With the release of "Birth of a Nation," Kelley and other NAACP leaders demonstrated in numerous cities against the film for representing a racist interpretation of black people.

[17][5] She used her direction to raise public awareness and pass state legislation to protect workers, primarily for women and children.

[5] The Consumers' League established a Code of Standards that served to raise wages, shorten hours, and required a minimum number of sanitary facilities.

[11] Kelley also served as a mentor to younger activists, such as Mary van Kleeck, who briefly worked for the Consumers League.

In 1907, she threw her influence into a Supreme Court case, Muller v. Oregon, an attempt to overturn limits to the hours female workers could work in non-hazardous professions.

[23] Kelley's NCL sponsored a "Consumer's 'white label'" on clothing that restricted garment production with child labor and working conditions against state law.

[5] The action helped support arguments in Muller v. Oregon in 1908, although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the women laundry workers in the case.

[25] Kelley also helped lobby Congress to pass the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916, which banned the sale of products created from factories that employed children thirteen and under.

[28] Kelly argues that it is the responsibility of the consumer to use their buying power to discourage moral ills regarding work conditions, such as child labor.

Finally, Kelly briefly explores how society ultimately bears the cost for not paying a sufficient minimum wage, through caring for the poor and through the maintenance of prisons.