Immigrant Factory Worker, New York, 1920s

In 1921, an Italian immigrant arrived in New York with just $11 in his pocket. He worked 72 hours a week in a Lower East Side garment factory, earning $19 a week. Every week, $6 went back to his family in Italy. He shared a tiny tenement room, lived on basic food, and saved whatever remained. Four years later, he had enough money to open his own tailor shop. But how? In this video, we break down the numbers dollar by dollar and hour by hour — wages, rent, food, remittances, working hours, and savings — to see how an immigrant worker in 1920s New York could turn a factory paycheck into a small business. We also look at what happened when factory hours were suddenly cut, how immigrant communities created informal savings systems outside traditional banks, and why the same arithmetic became much harder to repeat in later generations. The story of Antonio Russo is a composite character based on documented experiences of immigrant garment workers in New York during the 1920s. 📌 Topics covered: • New York immigrant workers in the 1920s • Lower East Side garment factories • Garment worker wages and working hours • Tenement housing and shared rent • Immigrant remittances to Europe • Informal savings and mutual aid societies • The economics of starting a small business • 1920s New York cost of living • Then vs. now: wages, rent and affordability The goal isn't to romanticize the past. It's to understand the arithmetic — and why the ratio between earning, surviving, and saving has changed so dramatically. #1920s #NewYork #Immigration #AmericanHistory #EconomicHistory #GarmentWorkers #LowerEastSide #CostOfLiving #History