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Nina Yang
Gardner
English 10H
4 May 2016
Sweatshops Save Lives?
Picture this: a family-- barefoot, wearing rags-- picking through heaps of garbage to find
a can, a bottle-- anything so they can sell it for a couple cents. Nearby, wooden posts support the
ceiling of a crude shack, barely standing out from the refuse. Believe it or not, this is how a lot of
families in third world countries survive--by selling whatever they can find. They make around a
dollar every day. It doesnt seem as if they can break the cycle of poverty but in reality, they can,
although the answer might be surprising: sweatshops. Sweatshops have a bad reputation in the
United States and other developed countries: we envision women and children doing slave-like
menial work in dark factories but a real sweatshop can be very different from what we think. By
the U.S. Department of labor, a sweatshop is defined as a factory that violates two or more labor
laws-- Child Labor Restrictions, Family Medical Leave Act, Supremacy, Independent
contractors, and the Fair Labor Standards act. These laws establish overtime pay, minimum
wage, youth employment standards, recordkeeping guidelines, and paying on time (Pena). This
doesnt necessarily mean that they are all that bad. Sweatshops raise the living standard in third
world countries; they provide jobs, a way out of poverty, and help boost their economy.
Opponents of sweatshops often argue that the factories should be banned for their low
wages and poor working conditions. They use the Rana Plaza incident as an example of the
negligence of sweatshop owners. Rana Plaza is a sweatshop factory in Bangladesh that
collapsed, killing 1,129 people. The building lacked proper safety exits, which the workers have

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complained about along with the poor state of the building, but the owners did nothing(Fast
Fashion). They are calling for higher pay, safety standards, and worker benefits believing that
sweatshops exploit their workers. What they dont know is that by pushing for better wages and
working conditions, they are costing thousands of people their jobs as the factory closes instead
of reforming. Working in a sweatshop seems awful, but to a lot of third world workers, having a
job, even one with so little pay, is a dream.
There arent a lot of options for workers in developing countries; they either take the job
or starve. Sweatshops exist because the labor is cheap. If, for some reason, labor stops being
cheap, then these factories will close down and leave thousands of workers without a job and
without pay, essentially worse off than they were before. Those who land sweatshop jobs can
count themselves lucky. The projected unemployment rates for Nicaragua, Haiti, Bangladesh,
Honduras and the Commonwealth of Dominica are 7.4 percent, 40.6 percent, 5 percent, 4.5
percent, and 23 percent respectively, according to the CIA world factbook(Mejia-Zaccaro).
David Mejia-Zaccaro-- a journalist from Kansas State University-- says that these unemployed
workers turn to less desirable jobs like subsistence farming, stone-working, janitorial work, and
prostitution. As bad as sweatshops can be, there are plenty of alternatives that are worse.
Although the thought of working long hours for a meager pay is not attractive to most
people living in first world countries, it is a way out of poverty to many third world workers.
Many families there live on garbage. They hope their sons or daughters get jobs in factories,
where it is safer and the pay is steady. "I'd love to get a job in a factory," says Pirn Srey Rath, a
19-year-old woman scavenging for plastic. "At least that work is in the shade. Here is where it's
hot."(Kristof) And shes not the only one. Vath Sam Oeun, a woman who has seen other children
get run over by garbage trucks, hopes her 10-year-old son grows up to get a factory job. Her son

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hasnt bathed since he was 2 year old and has never been to a doctor or dentist, so a sweatshop
will definitely seem safer and more appealing (Kristof). They live in a completely different world
from us, one where 77% of the population live on less than $2 a day, and 43% on less than $1.25
a day (Powell). In these cases, a sweatshop will actually pay more than some other jobs.
Benjamin Powell, director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, estimated the
wages of sweatshop workers in ten countries and compared it to the average national income. He
found that in nine out of ten countries, working ten-hour days in the apparel industry lifts
employees above (and often far above) the $2 per day threshold.And in half of the countries it
results in earning more than three times the national average(qtd. in Bowman). And its true-absolute poverty has diminished as sweatshops become more prevalent. Sweatshops give
workers a steady job, allowing them to support their families.
Sweatshops help developing countries grow and contribute to the global economy.
Selling clothes and other products will add to the wealth of the country, which means more
money for cars, railroad, food, housing, and will ultimately go back to the workers in one way or
another. Industry is good. It is what enabled the countries that are more developed to be that way.
It generates revenue that can be used to make more money, have more freedom. Nicholas
Kristof, american journalist and two time Pulitzer Prize winner, states that Among people who
work in development, many strongly believe that one of the best hopes for the poorest countries
would be to build their manufacturing industry. If we can encourage these countries to export
more goods, and countries like Britain or the U.S.to buy them, then we can help strengthen their
economy as per the princuple of globalization. And whats wrong with globalization? Because of
it, Bhagant, an elderly agricultural worker and untouchable was able to have a brick house
instead of mud, clean clothes, and shoes while his village also undergoes change--the streets

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have drains and are free from the oppressive odor of refuse, replaced by the smell of tilled earth
(Norberg). We should help struggling countries not by pushing them to ban sweatshops but by
supporting them to encourage further development of the country.
Despite the poor conditions of sweatshops, the jobs they provide, financial stability, and
potential to propel third world countries out of poverty make sweatshops not only beneficial to
them, the workers, but us, the consumers. Life would be a lot different without sweatshops.
Around 98% of our clothes are made in sweatshops (Fast Fashion). In addition to allowing the
people living in developed countries to buy clothes at a cheaper price, the people working in
sweatshops are able to improve their own lives. The banning of sweatshops will cause millions
of people to lose their jobs and thousands more to die without giving them a chance to reach their
full potential.

Works Cited
Bowman, Sam. "Sweatshops Make Poor People Better off." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May
2016
D.Pena, JD/MBA Carlos. "Sweatshop Labor Laws." EHow. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 05
May 2016.

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"Fast Fashion: The Real Costs of Your Cheapest Clothes." University Wire. 20 Oct. 2015:
n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 05 May 2016
Kristof, Nicholas D. "Where Sweatshops Are a Dream." New York Times Upfront (Vol. 141, No.
12). 06 Apr. 2009: 14-16. SIRS Issues Researcher.Web. 04 May 2016.
Mejia-Zaccaro, David. "Sweatshops Benefit Poor, Provide Employment; American
Humanitarianism Does More Harm than Good." The Collegian. Kansas State Collegian,
02 May 2013. Web. 05 May 2016.
Norberg, Johan. "Three Cheers for Global Capitalism." American Enterprise. June 2004: 20-27.
SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 05 May 2016.
Powell, Benjamin. "Sweatshops in Bangladesh Improve The Lives Of Their Workers,
And Boost Growth." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 2 May 2013. Web. 05 May 2016.