Posted by Arben Bajrami.
Sweatshops, or a workplace with unacceptable working conditions, have remained a problem up until recent years in business and in our economy. Companies such as Nike and Adidas have workers in foreign countries sewing and producing equipment, apparel, and footwear for very little pay. It is said that these sweatshop workers receive something called “living wage,” which is only five hundred dollars a month, or just enough money to survive.
Laborers that work in sweatshops are considered highly unethical. Also, these items cost very little money to make but sell at outrageously high prices in retail stores. For example, if it costs Nike four dollars and eighty cents to make a shirt, retail stores often mark up the product for eighteen dollars.
At least certain companies, such as Knights Apparel, are making a conscious effort to raise awareness to the horrors of sweatshops. Knights Apparel works closely with a program called Worker Rights Consortium. They work “‘to combat sweatshops and protect the rights of workers who sew apparel and make other products sold in the United States.’”
Arben is a marketing major at Montclair State University, Class of 2016.