According to the US department of Labor, it is a factory that violates 2+ labor laws. Sweatshops often have poor working conditions, unfair wages, unreasonable hours, child labor, and a lack of benefits for workers.
Why do Sweatshops exist?
They are a product of the global economy and the so-called “free” trade. Companies increase profits by driving down costs any way possible, so they set up low-cost factories. To minimize costs, companies look for places with the lowest wages and human rights protections.
Where do Sweatshops exist?
Sweatshops can be found all over Central and South America, Asia, and certain regions of Europe. There are even undocumented workers in sweatshops in places like: New York, San Francisco, and Los Angela.
Are Sweatshops illegal?
According to a report issued in 1994, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that there were still thousands of sweatshops in the U.S., using a definition of a sweatshop as any “employer that violates more than one federal or state labor law governing minimum wage and overtime, child labor, …show more content…
In 1889, the British government established a Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Sweating system, thus publicly exposing the conditions for the first time. With massive immigration into the United States, especially beginning in the late 1880s, sweatshops became common in American cities on the east coast. In the US, the social and economic conditions in most cities produced a large population from which to find workers willing to accept any wage and management systems that neglected the workers, thus removing any consideration of the human factor in manufacturing. In 1938, the US federal government established a minimum wage and maximum-hours legislation, and sweatshops began to