Sweatshop

Lore & Background

In the late 1700s, as part of the Industrial Revolution, people began working in sweatshops in the United Kingdom. In the early 1800s, the first sweatshops in the United States were built in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The system expanded en-masse to the Garment District, Manhattan, which saw a huge influx of Italian and Eastern-European Jewish immigrants with limited English language skills, providing a source of cheap labor. Workplaces created for the sweating system were called sweatshops and might contain only a few workers or as many as 300 or more, all illegally underpaid.

Reader's Guide

Sweatshops have been a contentious topic in economic and political debate, particularly surrounding child labor. Starting in the late 1960s and accelerating through the 1980s and 1990s, increased globalization and free trade agreements led to a 'race to the bottom,' moving manufacturing to lower-cost developing countries. Fast fashion grew during the late 20th century, increasing sweatshop use. In the 2020s, 'digital sweatshops' emerged, where workers train large language models or perform content moderation, often for extremely low pay. The controversial nature of sweatshops has led to the anti-sweatshop movement.

Did You Know?

• As of 2023, workers in Bangladesh sweatshops were paid $0.33/hour on average.

Origins and the Sweating System

The concept of the sweatshop did not emerge overnight. During the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s, workers in the United Kingdom began laboring in cramped, poorly ventilated workshops where a middleman known as a "sweater" directed garment production under punishing conditions. Workshops under this system could house anywhere from a handful of workers to over three hundred, all of whom were illegally underpaid. By the early 1800s, the model had crossed the Atlantic, taking root in Rhode Island and Massachusetts before spreading en masse to Manhattan's Garment District, where waves of Italian and Eastern European Jewish immigrants—many with limited English—supplied the cheap labor the system demanded. These early workplaces were routinely crowded, fire-prone, infested with rodents, and devoid of any job security, establishing a template of exploitation that would persist for generations.

The Human Toll and the Fight for Reform

The human cost of sweatshop labor was staggering, particularly for children. Organized responses also took shape internationally. In Melbourne, Australia, the National Anti-Sweating League formed in the 1890s and successfully campaigned for minimum wages through trade boards.

Globalization and the Geographic Shift

Starting in the late 1960s and accelerating dramatically through the 1980s and 1990s, globalization and free trade agreements triggered what observers called a "race to the bottom." Manufacturers, pressured by consumers seeking lower prices at national chains and mega-retailers, relocated production to countries with the cheapest labor. The consequences were measurable. U.S. Four-fifths of the new employment growth landed in Asian countries—Bangladesh, Thailand, and Indonesia—making them the epicenter of the industry. Today, most sweatshops are concentrated in India, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. As of 2023, a worker in a Bangladeshi sweatshop averaged just $0.33 per hour, while an Indian counterpart earned $0.58.

Modern Manifestations and the Ongoing Debate

The sweatshop label has expanded well beyond traditional garment factories. "Digital sweatshops" now employ workers to train large language models and perform content moderation, while scam centers replicate the same exploitative conditions. Many of these operations are entangled with human trafficking, where workers are lured into employment without informed consent or held through debt bondage. Penal labor facilities, where prisoners perform underpaid work, also fall under the sweatshop umbrella. The fashion industry's environmental footprint has been further exacerbated by these operations. Yet the debate is not purely one-sided. In some contexts, sweatshop employment has raised living standards relative to alternatives like subsistence agriculture or sex work, and the industry has been credited as the "first rung" in the economic transformation that lifted the Four Asian Tigers beginning in the 1950s. This tension—between undeniable exploitation and genuine economic uplift—fuels the ongoing anti-sweatshop movement and complicates any simple moral narrative about global labor.