What is a sweatshop?

Sweatshops are factories where workers work extremely long hours for very low wages under poor, often illegal, conditions. They are not a nice place to work!

Sweatshops produce many different products including garments, toys, shoes and furniture that are exported and sold on global markets including in North America and Europe. Most of the world's clothing is manufactured in sweatshops - including many designer brands.

Delayed salaries and no overtime

A study of sweatshop wages in Bangladesh found that not even are workers paid very little. Often, employees do not receive their wages on time nor are they paid for overtime work.

Sweatshop workers’ conditions - It can be really bad

In the worst forms of sweatshops people are forced to work up to 72 hours straight, without sleep. Those complaining are beaten and abused. Cases of physical, sexual, and verbal abuse are common and well documented.

Child labor in sweatshops

250 million children between 5 and 14 are forced to work in sweatshops in developing countries.

Children as young as 6 have been found working in sweatshops for up to 16 hours per day.

The pay? Sometimes less than 20 cents per day or about one cent per hour.

Products produced in sweatshops

Products that are commonly produced in sweatshops include clothing, shoes, toys, electronics, carpets, chocolate, coffee.

Products from sweatshops are exported on a large scale. To illustrate, the clothing industry in Bangladesh accounts for about 80% of the country’s exports and around 40% of its industrial workforce.

What to do as a consumer to avoid supporting sweatshops?

Look for fair trade labeled products. Fair trade labels ensure higher salaries and better working conditions as well as higher social and environmental standards.

A shirt that sells for $60 on western markets can cost less than 10 cents in labor-wages.

Most consumers are willing to pay a little more to make sure their t-shirt is not made in a sweatshop under very poor conditions. A study showed that on average, consumers are willing to pay 15% more for their products to guarantee that it has not been made in a sweatshop.

The actual cost to consumers to double wages would be a mere 1.8% increase on average.

So why no major changes if people are willing to pay more to avoid sweatshops?

Because, as a consumer you don’t see all the bad stuff going on in the process of making your product. The brands trying to sell you a shirt are not exactly advertising their sweatshop production conditions when you are in the store.

Not all sweatshops are bad

If workers’ rights are respected sweatshops can actually help poor countries. For example, in Honduras, the average clothing “sweatshop” worker earns 13 US dollars per day, which is a decent wage considering that 44 percent of the country’s population lives on less than 2 dollars per day.