Labor Practices Paper
Name
PHL/320
Date
Teacher Labor Practices - Sweatshops
Most members of society deem sweatshops as an unacceptable source of labor. Others claim that many of those individuals living in developing countries, facing adverse circumstances, only dream of being employed by a sweatshop. Although at a bare minimum, sweatshops do provide its patrons a source of income. The wages earned by these workers help bring, maybe, a loaf of bread to their families. Sweatshops exploit its workers through dehumanizing practices, and should not be supported as a viable means of a country's economic development. Sweatshops are known for subjecting factory workers to dangerous and unsanitary working conditions. War On Want, an organization created to fight poverty in developing countries, states that "in 2009, approximately one million workers were injured at work and about 20,000 suffered from diseases due to their occupation" (Klein, 2009). Sweatshop employees work more than 70 hours per week, which is 30 hours more than the average American working full-time. After a day's work, employees head home to their cramped living quarters, with at least six workers to a room. It's almost as if these individuals are treated like cattle. According to an article done by Webster University, more than 55 percent of sweatshop employees are young and uneducated women. One of the biggest concerns for many sweatshop employers are having female workers becoming pregnant, as it would destabilize consistent productivity. To eliminate this risk, the women are forbidden to have babies. In 2000, 20/20 did a special investigation on Saipan sweatshops where investigators found that pregnant employees were forced to have an abortion unless they wanted to lose their jobs. It can be argued that these pregnant workers are provided the freedom to choose, but the option of either keeping one's job or one's own child seems unethically extreme. One of the main criticisms with sweatshops is the employment of young children. In 2006, the National Labor Committee reported nearly 200 children, no more than 11 years old, were sewing clothing for big box stores like J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart. Many of the children employed by sweatshops work seven days a week with 20 hour shifts. Often times these child workers are beaten to keep up a certain level of productivity and resultantly fall down from exhaustion. The working conditions and malnutrition faced by child laborers often stunt their physical and mental growth, disenabling them from transitioning out of this poverty cycle. Evidence shows the immense harm that sweatshops have on its workers. Economists claim that sweatshops promote a country's overall economic development. Yes, sweatshops do provide an alternative to earn a living for those struck by poverty. However, what economists fail to realize is that it does not get these individuals out of the poverty line, but rather keeps them in it. The main benefactors of these sweatshops are big box stores like Nike, Wal-Mart, and J.C. Penney, whose salary and wage expenses are only a small percentage of their overall gross profit.

Works Cited
Klein, Naomi. "Sweatshops in China." War On Want. War on Want, 6 May 2009. Web. 04 June 2014.
Kristoff, Nicholas D. "Where Sweatshops Are a Dream." The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Jan. 2009. Web. 06 June 2014.
"Sweatshops." Sweatshops. Woman and Global Human Rights, 15 Sept. 2012. Web. 05 June 2014.