Question

Why did many factory owners in the late 1800s hire children rather than adults?
Children were generally bigger and stronger than adults.
Children were afforded more workplace protection than adults.
Children could learn specialized skills more easily than adults.
Children could be paid lesser wages than adults.

Answer 1

Children could be paid lesser wages than adults.

Factory owners hired children because they were cheaper to employ (and easier to control and fit into small spaces/machinery), and there were few regulations protecting child labor in the late 1800s.