Jean Sweatshops in China
by Christina Argonish
March 2010
Did you ever wonder who made the jeans you wear or how long it took the people to make them? The task of producing these frequently worn garments is given to certain people. Developing countries like China have factories that mass produce blue-jeans for American companies. Their workers work in a harsh environment and under atrocious circumstances. These conditions classify the blue-jean factories to be anything but bearable.
We must be fast and can’t miss any of the loose threads… I need to brush the lint from the inside and out. Need to look in all pockets for pebbles. In one hour I can make about half a yuan (about six cents in U.S. dollars). – Jasmine, a 17-year-old factory worker. 1
Sweatshops in general have young workers working was past normal hours. A common shift without overtime would be 11- 12 hours, 7 days a week. 2 Overtime is something that is forecasted whenever a company sends in a large shipment. Women are dragged to follow these unfair regulations or else punishments are issued. They are so sleep deprived that some even lose consciousness while on the job. 3
Companies produce goods at low costs in order to give consumers an affordable garment, like jeans. 4 $280 billion worth of goods was expected to be shipped from China to America in 2006. In order to provide American consumers with inexpensive clothes American companies require lower prices from the Chinese suppliers. Local governments set the minimum wage for the factory workers and it ranges from $45- $101 a month. 5 In total, many times the payment received by the workers for making a pair of jeans is somewhere around one dollar. This amount is shared by the number of people who were involved in the process of the pair of jeans. While Americans may be paying 50 dollars, less than one dollar is given to the maker. Where does the rest of the money go? Advertisement, store rentals, and retail corporation use the rest of the money. 6
An example of a company that buys their jeans from sweatshops is The Limited, Inc. This company owns many other popular brands like Express, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Victoria’s Secret. Factory workers in China produce these jeans while living in cramped room, and in one week work up to 70 hours.
Sources Used:
1.http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/chinablue/film.html
2.http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000924mag-sweatshops.html
3.http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-06/29/content_629122.htm
4.http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/chinablue/jeans.html
5.http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_48/b4011001.htm