By paying lower wages factory owners were able to

By paying low wages, factory owners were able to increase their profits in a competitive environment.

Labor costs made up a large portion of a factory's costs followed by machinery, maintenance and stock.

The easiest way to reduce costs for any factory or business at the time was to simply pay workers poorly. Since there were hardly any legislation for employees, and the fact that unemployment and poverty was very high, factory owners were able to exploit workers in order to make as much profit as they could.