He proposed the first minimum wage requirement that would be a standard throughout the nation, and the concept of a forty-hour week, with time and a half for overtime. The New Deal also stated the minimum age requirement for workers, which is still sixteen years old today.( http://americanhistory.si.edu/sweatshops/history/2t49.htm) Some of his laws have been modified, like minimum wage, which changes with the state of the economy and inflation. These laws protecting workers played a vital role in reducing the amount of sweatshops that plagued our industries. Although no legislation is perfect, another historic violation of workers" rights occurred in 1995 in El Monte, California. The U.S. Department of Labor arrived at a small apartment complex and to their surprise found a razor wire barricaded garment factory. Inside their was seventy-two, predominantly female, Thai workers who labored twenty hours a week for seven days and only earned twenty cents and hour. When these people were not working they were packed ten deep into rooms and were not allowed to leave in fear of physical abuse, their illegal immigrant status, locked doors, and barbed wire. The discovery at El Monte sparked a new initiative in the public and the government to eliminate sweatshops. (http://americanhistory.si.edu/sweatshops/index.htm).
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Although stronger laws have been passed and the government has a heightened awareness of the growing problem it is hard to monitor work violations in the globalizing economy. In the past couple decades American corporations have been moving their operations overseas to take advantage of lower labor and production costs. Companies began to outsource production at separately owned contract supplier facilities. This economic globalization prompted "country-hopping" by corporations from countries where labor rates are rising to less developed countries in search of ever-lower wages.
