How were the Irish treated during the transcontinental railroad?

Although the 3000 Irish laborers did not suffer the same type of racial injustice while on the railroads, they still were not adequately paid for the dangerous types of work they were doing. They were paid little money to work on a dangerous and mainly unsettled terrain (Harvard).



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The major groups of immigrants that worked on the transcontinental railroad were from Ireland and China. All immigrants working on the transcontinental railroad were treated equally and with high standards.

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Among those who worked on the railway were thousands of post-Famine Irish emigrants who laboured alongside Chinese workers drafted in to make up for the labour shortages across the continent at the time.

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In 1863, work begins with the hope it will unite a country ripped apart over slavery. Treatment of two immigrant groups show the Civil War hasn't killed racism. Three thousand Irish immigrants work mainly on the Union Pacific line going West to East.

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Chinese workers were treated unjustly and paid lower because of their race. Chinese workers were paid approximately $24 to $31 a month, while the Irish workers were pad $35 a month. In addition, the Chinese worked longer hours and paid for their lodging, food and tools while Irish and white workers were provided for.

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Three thousand Irish immigrants work mainly on the Union Pacific line going West to East. In 1866, 3,000 Chinese are hired and soon make up 75% of the Central Pacific (West to East) workforce of 10,000 to 12,000 men.

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Altogether, the Central Pacific Railroad hired an estimated 12,000 Chinese workers, some as young as 12. The Chinese workers, at that time the largest industrial workforce in American history, made up 90 percent of the Central Pacific's total labor force.

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“Chinese received 30-50 percent lower wages than whites for the same job and they had to pay for their own food stuffs,” Chang says. “They also had the most difficult and dangerous work, including tunneling and the use of explosives. There is also evidence they faced physical abuse at times from some supervisors.

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For others, however, the Transcontinental Railroad undermined the sovereignty of Native nations and threatened to destroy Indigenous communities and their cultures as the railroad expanded into territories inhabited by Native Americans.

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