The definition of the sweatshop is a workplace where workers are subject to the following: extreme exploitation, including the absence of a living wage or benefits, poor working conditions, such as health and safety hazards, and arbitrary discipline. Historically, the word "sweatshop" originated in the 19th century to describe a subcontracting system in which the middlemen earned profits from the margin between the amount they received for a contract and the amount they paid to the workers. The margin was said to be "sweated" from the workers because they received minimal wages for excessive hours worked under unsanitary conditions. The owners’, of these sweatshops’, strategy is to attract the workers by promising high salaries, accommodation and safe environment but when the workers actually begin to work, their salaries drop to pennies a day, accommodation and food are extra and the environment is harsh. Not only that, the workers upon being hired have to pay a fee between $2000-$4000 to agencies to provided them with the employers.

Today, the sweatshops located everywhere. The overwhelming majority of garment workers are

From this research I acquired the knowledge that it is retailers who determine the price of clothing. The $100 sale price of a garment is typically divided up as follows: $50 to the retailer, $35 to the manufacturer, $10 to the contractor, and $5 to the garment worker. Retailers also control the apparel industry by producing their own private labels instead of buying from brand-name manufacturers. Retailers contract for the production of, oversee, and price garments created exclusively for their stores. Approximately 32% of women's apparel sold in the U.S. is manufactured under private labels. While retailers typically keep 50% of the price of brand-name goods, they are able to keep 80% of the price of their own private label products. Retailers' domination of the garment industry means they can affect whether sweatshop conditions improve or worsen. With their power to control production, retailers, along with manufacturers, should be held accountable for the conditions of the workers who sew their clothes. Another important fact is that the young women today who don’t work in sweatshops starve themselves in order to fit an image that the fashion industry deems "ideal." Yet we often forget that the clothes we strive to fit into are made by other starving young women in sweatshops. You are a consumer, and therefore have a huge voice in the fashion industry.

testimony blew the whistle on the Honduras factory -- says that Disney relies on exploited Haitian labor. Disney has been buying clothes from the same contractor for 20 years. In March-November 2000, the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (CIC) investigated working conditions in 12 Disney contract factories in Guangdong province in southern China. Six were toy factories, two garment, three accessory, and one watch factory. Although Disney claims that its code of conduct and so-called "independent" monitoring system are ensuring respect for workers' right in its supply factories in China and other countries, the CIC study found that violations of the Disney code of conduct and Chinese labor law were commonplace. Those violations include: excessively long hours of work, poverty wages, unreasonable fines, workplace hazards, poor food, and dangerously overcrowded dormitories.

Country Household(#of people in family) Status—Just to get by Salary needed to survive in $US$ $US$/hour received % that is met by salary

The examples below illustrate the wide gap between what garment workers bring home and what their families need to live dignified lives. Workers should be earning a living wage that allows their families to meet their basic needs.

Some topics in this essay:
LA CA, Industry Sweatshop, Sean John, El Salvador, China Six, Department Labor, Affect Economy, Overseas Overseas, Third World, Bangkok Thailand, living wage, garment industry, liz claiborne, people poverty, sean john, code conduct, garment workers, fashion industry, minimum wage, el salvador, 3 people poverty, sean john clothing, minimum wage overtime,