The working conditions for the Victorians were horrendous, unsafe, dirty and many many many more adjectives could describe it. They used children for things such as wading through the toxic Thames river mud to find sellable items or even maiming children to garner more sympathy and money while begging on the street. Both of those things would be considered illegal in today’s society. Unfortunately, endangering children for monetary benefit still occurs today, however it tends to be a bit more subtle, such as lying about mental deficits to gain government funding.
Victorian workhouses are definitely different from state funded programs to give work in today’s society. My mind goes immediately to “temp” job agencies, where they contract you out for minimum wage. The wages in workhouses however were practically non-existent, they only fed you enough to stave off starvation and they might clothe you and allow you to occasionally bathe. The conditions were atrocious. The only real positive I saw come out of workhouses was the beginning of state funded medical care. This is something that has persisted and grown exponentially in America.
Humanities 101 