Most of the world’s clothes, including many designer brands, are manufactured in sweatshops. Workers work long hours with poor conditions and for very low wages. Most of the sweatshop workers are women, but extensive use is also made of child labour. It is nothing short of slave labour. the factories have been described as prisons.
What is a sweatshop?
There is probably no official definition of what a sweatshop is. The US Department of Labor define it as a factory that violates two or more labor laws. These are laws that pertain to things like wages, benefits, working hours and the use of child labor. Whatever the definition, sweatshops have three major characteristics. The workers will work long hours, in unsafe or unhealthy conditions, for very low pay.
Companies try to increase their profits by driving down the cost of production. The alternative would be to charge more for their clothes. This would be very problematic as westerners demand low cost clothing.Therefore they look for factories where the workers will get very low wages and where the local humans rights protections and not strong. Most of the sweatshops are found in Asia, Central and South America although they are also found in Eastern Europe e.g. Romania. So basically, the citizens of the advanced industrial countries exploit the workers in developing countries in order to get low cost clothing.
Why so Sweatshops Exist?
The factory owners are put in a difficult position. They have no bargaining power as there is fierce competition in their industry. They are given a “take it or leave it” offer and know that if they can’t produce the clothing at a low enough price, the work will be given to another factory. This leads to low wages and little money spent on improving the health and safety of the workers.
The industry is based on a subcontracting system. The retailers themselves place their orders with manufacturers i.e. the brands themselves. The manufacturers use contractors (who might them sub-contract) to get the clothes made. The contractors and subcontractors pay the workers to produce the clothes.
Since the retailers and brands don’t employ the factory workers directly, they try to say they are not therefore responsible for the low pay and conditions. This is a cop-out. Often, the contracts are very short-term, with not enough time to produce goods. The contractor will be under pressure and the result is often excessive overtime, low quality products and an increase in workplace accidents.
The situation has got worse because of the global economy. Rich and powerful countries negotiate trade deals with developing countries which allow easy trade of goods and service. Unfortunately, the trade deals are unlikely to have regulations that ensure fair pay or conditions to the factory workers. So the clothing companies benefit from the trade with low prices and big profits. The factory workers lose out with low wages and poor working conditions.
Sweatshops will exist wherever there is an opportunity to exploit workers who are not in a strong enough position to stand up for themselves. The workers are often young and uneducated. Often they are unaware of their legal rights. They are often migrant workers with no bargaining power.
Would people pay more for ethically sourced clothes?
If a price increase for goods ensured an ethical product, would consumers purchase it? Of course this depends on the circ*mstances, but according to aHarvard case studyon ethically labeled towels, coffee and shirts, the answer is – yes, they would.A study quoted on the doSomething website showed that doubling the salary of sweatshop workers would only increase the consumer cost of an item by 1.8%, while consumers would be willing to pay 15% more to know a product did not come from a sweatshop.
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FAQs
Sweatshops will exist wherever there is an opportunity to exploit workers who are not in a strong enough position to stand up for themselves. The workers are often young and uneducated. Often they are unaware of their legal rights. They are often migrant workers with no bargaining power.
Why do sweatshops still exist? ›
Sweatshops still exist today and can be found in the garment industry. The structure of this industry relies on sweatshops to increase profits. Manufacturers design these garments, market their own labels, and supply them to the retailer, where they are sold to consumers.
What are the ethical issues of sweatshops? ›
Sweatshop owners often pay their workers inadequate wages, an injustice compounded by unsafe working conditions and exhaustive working hours – in Bangladesh, workers are forced to work daily for 14-16 hours for around $45 a month, which remains far below the living wage level (War on Want, 2015).
Why are sweatshops so common around the world? ›
Certain social and economic conditions are necessary for sweatshops to be possible: (1) a mass of unskilled and unorganized labourers, often including children, (2) management systems that neglect the human factor of labour, and (3) lack of accountability for poor working conditions, or failure of governments to ...
What is the reason sweatshops are called sweatshops Quizlet? ›
sweatshop. A workplace that violates more than one federal or state labor law; the term has come to include exploitation of workers, for example, in workplaces with no livable wages or benefits, poor and hazardous working conditions, and possible verbal or physical abuse.
What would happen if sweatshops didn't exist? ›
Without jobs in export industries, many more people would be unemployed or wages in the country would fall in order to preserve full employment. It is erroneous to suppose that if those workers weren't employed in sweatshops, they would be computer programmers or doctors.
How can sweatshops be stopped? ›
By taking one or more of the steps outlined below, you can make a real difference to end sweatshops.
- Demand sweatshop-free products where you shop. ...
- Buy union-made, local, and secondhand. ...
- Buy Fair Trade. ...
- Ask questions. ...
- Mobilize at your workplace, school, or in your community. ...
- Use shareholder clout to end sweatshops.
Sweatshops often have poor working conditions, unfair wages, unreasonable hours, child labor, and a lack of benefits for workers. Take a stand and protest: Ask your school to make its apparel under fair conditions.
Are sweatshops illegal? ›
Sweatshops operate illegally as part of the underground economy. They often are fly-by-night operations that can pack and move quickly from place to place, sometimes across state lines. Sweatshops flourish because of the huge competitive advantage they gain over legitimate businesses that: Pay fair wages.
Why are sweatshops unfair? ›
The work may be difficult, tiresome, dangerous, climatically challenging, or underpaid. Workers in sweatshops may work long hours with unfair wages, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage; child labor laws may also be violated.
Like other multinational companies, Nike outsources the production of sportswear and sneakers to developing economies to save costs, taking advantage of a cheap workforce. This has given birth to sweatshops - factories where workers are forced to work long hours at very low wages under abysmal working conditions.
Is Shein a sweatshop? ›
Shein has repeatedly come under fire for poor working conditions, high levels of toxic chemicals in its clothing, copying independent designers' items, and mishandling customer data.
Who is responsible for sweatshops? ›
Retailers in Control
They are responsible for the global sweatshop crisis. Apparel retailers usually do not own any factories of their own, because it is cheaper for them to buy clothing from apparel factories around the world.
Why are sweatshops ethically wrong? ›
On views of both kinds, the employers of sweatshop workers are held to be guilty of wrongfully exploiting them because they take advantage of the workers' at least fairly desperate economic circ*mstances in order to get them to agree to conditions of employment that involve, for example, very low wages, long hours, and ...
Why are sweatshops bad for the environment? ›
This has led to unethical practices by outsourcing labor to the cheapest countries (which are cheap because all of the workers are severely underpaid). It has also led to damages in the environment: including the ocean, atmosphere and other water sources near the factories that are contaminated with dyes.
What are some shocking facts about sweatshops? ›
People work very long hours and often there is no overtime meaning the hourly wage can be as low as under 20 cents. In the worst cases, sweatshop workers are forced to work as much as 72 hours without sleep. Physical, sexual, and verbal abuse is common and well documented.
Are sweatshops illegal in the US? ›
Sweatshops operate illegally as part of the underground economy. They often are fly-by-night operations that can pack and move quickly from place to place, sometimes across state lines.
Does Disney use sweatshops? ›
Since the late 1990s, human rights groups have reported that many of Disney's consumer products have been made in sweatshops in Bangladesh, China, and Haiti.
Is there a better alternative to sweatshops? ›
The most common alternatives to sweatshop labor in many of these countries are substance agriculture and destitute poverty. Powell noted that these alternatives could be especially damaging to children.
Why does Nike use sweatshops? ›
Like other multinational companies, Nike outsources the production of sportswear and sneakers to developing economies to save costs, taking advantage of a cheap workforce. This has given birth to sweatshops - factories where workers are forced to work long hours at very low wages under abysmal working conditions.
