Sweatshop

A sweatshop is a factory, usually in a third-world country, where people work for a very small wage compared to their first-world counterparts, producing a variety of products such as clothes, toys, shoes, and other consumer goods. The term is usually used as a pejorative, and connotes a factory in which the workers may be kept in a harsh environment with inadequate ventilation, and may sometimes be abused physically, mentally, or sexually, subjected to long hours, harsh or unsafe conditions, and the like. Some companies have been found to use children in their subcontracting sweatshops. Some countries where sweatshops are found forbid the practice of trade unionization.

See also

• SA8000 - Social Accountability Certification Scheme for Manufacturing Industry
• child labor
• Corporate abuse
• exploitation
• fair trade
• free trade
• globalisation
• slavery
• trafficking in human beings
• Dependency theory