Sweatshops - Geography Essay

2416 Words10 Pages
The Fashion Industry and Sweatshops The Fashion Industry and Sweatshops Example of a sweatshop A sweatshop is a factory or workshop, especially in the clothing industry, where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions. Sweatshops are often illegal, sometimes hidden factories so that they avoid having to implement legal regulations that govern working conditions, wages and benefits. They often employ the most vulnerable of workers – immigrants (often illegal), young women and the undereducated. Where the working environment is considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous and where the workers are exploited. Sweatshops may exist in any country but are more commonly found in LEDC’s. Many of the clothes sold in retail outlets in MEDC’s are manufactured in factories in LEDC’s. In many industries, including the fashion industry, jobs have been lost in MEDC’s because goods and clothes can be produced (manufactured) cheaply and more efficiently in the poorer parts of the world. This is because manufacturing overseas is cheaper; the wages there are lower, due to lots of workers being available and there being no minimum wage. Therefore manufacturers make bigger profit. As well as that, there are fewer factory regulations at sweatshops because the health and safety regulations aren’t as important in LEDC’s, that way it makes it cheaper to run the factory. As well as that, renting and buying the factory is cheaper too because the economy of LEDCS are weak the demand of buying property is low because not many people can afford it therefore buildings and houses are worth less because of low demand. Another reason clothes are manufactured in LEDCs is because there is less tax to foreign government, therefore there is a bigger profit for the manufacturers. Because LEDCs have a weak economy, there are very few
Open Document