"[2] The labor problem encompasses the difficulties faced by wage-earners and employers who began to cut wages for various reasons including increased technology, desire for lower costs or to stay in business.
The wage-earning classes responded with strikes, by unionizing and by committing acts of outright violence.
It was a nationwide problem that spanned nearly all industries and helped contribute to modern business conditions still seen today.
Possible causes include the failure to account for the negative externality of reproduction in the face of finite natural resources which results in over-supply of labor and falling living standards for wage-laborers, depersonalization by machines and poor working conditions.
At the turn of the century, machines were beginning to take a stronger footing in the economy, which drove costs down.
It began as a railroad strike but eventually formed riots that lasted four days and killed fifty people.
Many aspects of modern business like an established 40-hour work week, overtime pay, collective bargaining and safer working conditions among numerous other reforms can all trace their roots back to this time period and the legislation passed to correct it.