Child Labor has been a resource used by many big name companies for a very long period of time. This type of labor occurs in many countries including The United States. The current labor laws do not allow child labor, but it is very hard to enforce these regulations world wide. Sweatshops are known and prevalent but consumers benefit too much and even the laborers have better lives with these jobs than without. Sweatshops benefit the economy, consumers, and the laborers have better lives with these jobs no matter the wage or working conditions. Not only is child labor a form of cheap labor, parents who have to decide between clothes and food do exist. The typical situations we see and hear about in the news and the charitable organizations do exist. People are out there, and they do need money. These people are out of work and do not have access to public education like people in America. That is why America is not a place prominent with cheap labor. Very popular companies such as Nike, are vocal about using cheap and even child labor to produce their goods in large quantities (Kristof 2). The cheaper the labor, the cheaper the price the good is marked at for the consumers in the public.
Websites like Amazon allow any business to put their goods and services up on their website and list their own prices for these goods, along with the shipping and processing price as well. The businesses you find the lowest prices at are the one’s that are usually taking advantage of an illegal source of cheap labor (Kristof). People always seem to look at the ethics of business but as consumers, we are the ones allowed to judge the ethics of business. If we do not know where our products are made and who made our product, do we have the right to judge that information. The majority of consumers get their groceries from big name grocery stores, when in reality these consumers do not know where the majority of their groceries came from. Most people take a side on the issues involving cheap labor by the use of sweatshops even though, they do not realize that the majority of them have bought and own products that were made and manufactured in a sweatshop. As people might not be aware of where their products come from and they take a stance on sweatshops even though they purchase the majority of their weekly goods from places they have no clue that the goods were made from a source of cheap labor. When laborers agree to work for an employer, they agree to the terms and labor conditions that the company has ( Zwolinski). They have a choice whether to work there or not work there.
The laborer knows of the conditions prior to working and they are aware of the low wages they will be earning. These laborers do not go in blindly to their work conditions or wages, they have prior knowledge of this information. They will usually sign a written agreement or at least have a verbal agreement because a lot of this information will usually be kept off the record (Zwolinski). While many of these businesses are increases work conditions, they will remain keeping the prices low for consumers like us. Nike is a great example of a company that uses cheap labor and is able to continually benefit from the cheap labor and also increase the conditions of the work place in a positive way. Nike has had some bad reports brought up about how some children they have hired in the work place have been injured on the job. These injuries are hardly ever reported but they are still required to work. Although it sounds cruel to have people work with injuries, consumers who take the stance against these type of labor conditions are still ordering products on a regular basis from these companies. Consumers do not appreciate the low prices of goods that are provided to them just because of the way the prices become low. The prices become low because they get to pay much less on labor costs, and the companies are able to produce the goods in a faster amount of time with a much higher quantity. Working conditions and wages are interrelated and economists should start analyzing them as if they are one whole piece rather than two separate pieces (Powell).
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The main industries that this applies are the apparel industry, the textile industry, and the electronic industry. These industries are the main industries that take advantage of cheap labor. The apparel industry has been facing scrutiny from all over the world because of the large amount of cheap labor being used to make the product faster and in higher quantities (Emmelhainz and Adams 54). Most warehouses for apparel making is in a different country other than the United States, so the labor laws that are followed are not as strict or enforced as it would be in the United States. While the International Labour Organization is working on making the required work conditions to be better than the current regulations, putting age restrictions and trying to think of a way to ensure a minimum wage is the current plan for the ILO. The downfall with all these new rules and regulations that are trying to be put in to place is that it will reduce the number of jobs provided from these companies. The company only sets aside a certain amount of money for the type of labor, known as factory labor. With a certain budget set for this type of labor makes it so their can only be a limited number of jobs even though the amount of people needing jobs exceeds that number by a tremendous amount. These regulations that are being put in to place are decreasing the number of jobs and salaries that people need.
The truth is, as consumers we do not really think about things that really are tied together in businesses. What consumers do not notice is that wages and working conditions are actually related. When working conditions go up, the wages go down and if the working conditions are at a minimum and kept low, then the wages will be as high as the company allows. It is more beneficial for the laborers if the working conditions are lower because then they will end up making more money in the long run. The laborers lives actually are better when they have these jobs because without these jobs, then there would be no job and source of income for them at all. The Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs shows what as humans we need and what things we can not have until certain needs are met. Breathing, food, water, and sleep are the basic needs that are required to be met before anything else. Family and employment is next, and without any source of income none of this could be possible. These big companies are providing jobs that anyone is capable of doing with no education history required and giving them some wage they are not used to having come in to their household. Big corporations are creating jobs by leaving these jobs open to people that do not have the education available to them. While people are putting the blame on these big corporations, everyone should be thanking them for providing people who usually can not work a job and a better life for their house hold.
The reasons to improve labor conditions are very obvious but companies still don’t improve them because of the money. People want to improve the labor conditions because people deserve a safe work environment, but when looking at it from a company’s point of view, it is just another expense and people are still willing to work for the company even without the improved work conditions. It in fact does cost money to increase working conditions, so when companies take in to consideration that it will cost money to improve the conditions, they don’t make them better because they want to save money. Big companies that utilize child and cheap labor are stimulating our economy by making it easier for consumers to purchase items. When big companies are using this cheap labor the goods will be marked at such a low sale price that will make it easier for consumers to purchase goods. This type of shopping is usually online shopping that is from amazon.com. When purchasing these goods, they will usually come from Asian countries where goods are mass produced with the use of cheap and child labor. Big companies should not be getting scrutinized for utilizing this source of labor in order to maximize profit. The proposed solution to the poor labor conditions and to underage labor is being looked at all wrong. People should not be targeting and scrutinizing companies for taking advantage of a prominent way to save money for the company. The amount of jobs are significantly higher than they would be if the labor conditions and labor laws are changed dramatically. There are certain regulations that can be changed but each change made in any of the laws will cost an amount of money that could be going to someone’s paycheck.
