During The Industrialization Period

In 1760 during the industrialization period, cities in London and Europe populated quickly, increasing the need for jobs to support growing families. As these towns began to industrialize, more jobs became accessible to the lower class, allowing citizens to earn money and support their large families. Often, families would take their children to work in order to add support the family, contributing to child labor. During this time period, there was no limit to the amount of hours a factory employee worked nor was there minimum wage so the factory owners took advantage of this and forced their employees to work for sixteen to eighteen hours per day to earn a decent amount of money. With its workers slaving away for several hours, the production
of material items increased, bringing the factory owners higher profits. Even today, many workers are paid less than two dollars for every hour they work, which is far below minimum wage. Sweatshops are mainly located in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Costa Rica and many poorer countries since there are no laws to prevent factory owners from overworking and underpaying its employees. Conditions in sweatshops are appalling, from the cramped workspace to low wages and long hours, but citizens do what they must to earn money to support their families.