Child Labor Laws, Sweatshops, Questions And Answers
Question 1
A sweatshop is a working environment with very difficult or dangerous conditions, usually where the workers have few rights or ways to address their situation. This can include exposure to harmful materials, hazardous situations, extreme temperatures, or abuse from employers. Sweatshop workers are often forced to work long hours for little or no pay, regardless of any laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labor laws may also be violated.
Though often associated with third-world countries, sweatshops can exist in any country. Sweatshops have existed in several cultures, including Early American culture beginning in the 1850's. Sweatshops can produce many different goods, from clothing to furniture.
Meanwhile, defenders …show more content…
Clothing retailer Gap Inc., which includes Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Forth & Towne brands, has significantly changed its policies. Gap Inc. has developed a Code of Vendor Conduct which applies across all of its brands based on internationally accepted labor standards. Walmart and Nike are two of the largest corporate sponsors of sweatshop labor, but claim that they have safeguards in place to avoid using the worst sweatshops. Disney has also employed sweatshops to produce much of their clothing and toys, but their use has not been as well publicized as the cases of Nike, Walmart, or Kathie Lee Gifford. In the book "Disney; the Mouse Betrayed"; a chapter shows dealings with China, Vietnam, Haiti, but especially targets Disney's relationship with the military junta of Burma, of which it works hard to keep quiet given Burma's huge unpopularity in the international community. "Dozens of American clothes makers, such as Old Navy, Gap, Guess, Donna Karan, Victoria's Secret, have all signed pledges with the U.S. Department of Labor stating their conditions are closely monitored and that no child labor is being used. Disney has …show more content…
World poverty has become better due in a large part to the economic success of China and India, the two countries with the largest number of workers in sweatshops. Against this progress in the developing world, one should also note that economic inequality between the richest and poorest has never been so large. "The income gap between the fifth of the world's people living in the richest countries and the fifth in the poorest was 74 to 1 in 1997, up from 60 to 1 in 1990 and 30 to 1 in 1960. Earlier the income gap between the top and bottom countries increased from 3 to 1 in 1820 to 7 to 1 in 1870 to 11 to 1 in 1913."
While trade unions, minimum wage laws, fire safety codes, and labor laws have made sweatshops (in the original sense) rarer in the developed world, they did not eliminate them, and the term came to be increasingly associated with factories in the developing
A sweatshop is a working environment with very difficult or dangerous conditions, usually where the workers have few rights or ways to address their situation. This can include exposure to harmful materials, hazardous situations, extreme temperatures, or abuse from employers. Sweatshop workers are often forced to work long hours for little or no pay, regardless of any laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labor laws may also be violated.
Though often associated with third-world countries, sweatshops can exist in any country. Sweatshops have existed in several cultures, including Early American culture beginning in the 1850's. Sweatshops can produce many different goods, from clothing to furniture.
Meanwhile, defenders …show more content…
Clothing retailer Gap Inc., which includes Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Forth & Towne brands, has significantly changed its policies. Gap Inc. has developed a Code of Vendor Conduct which applies across all of its brands based on internationally accepted labor standards. Walmart and Nike are two of the largest corporate sponsors of sweatshop labor, but claim that they have safeguards in place to avoid using the worst sweatshops. Disney has also employed sweatshops to produce much of their clothing and toys, but their use has not been as well publicized as the cases of Nike, Walmart, or Kathie Lee Gifford. In the book "Disney; the Mouse Betrayed"; a chapter shows dealings with China, Vietnam, Haiti, but especially targets Disney's relationship with the military junta of Burma, of which it works hard to keep quiet given Burma's huge unpopularity in the international community. "Dozens of American clothes makers, such as Old Navy, Gap, Guess, Donna Karan, Victoria's Secret, have all signed pledges with the U.S. Department of Labor stating their conditions are closely monitored and that no child labor is being used. Disney has …show more content…
World poverty has become better due in a large part to the economic success of China and India, the two countries with the largest number of workers in sweatshops. Against this progress in the developing world, one should also note that economic inequality between the richest and poorest has never been so large. "The income gap between the fifth of the world's people living in the richest countries and the fifth in the poorest was 74 to 1 in 1997, up from 60 to 1 in 1990 and 30 to 1 in 1960. Earlier the income gap between the top and bottom countries increased from 3 to 1 in 1820 to 7 to 1 in 1870 to 11 to 1 in 1913."
While trade unions, minimum wage laws, fire safety codes, and labor laws have made sweatshops (in the original sense) rarer in the developed world, they did not eliminate them, and the term came to be increasingly associated with factories in the developing