What should the U.S. be doing about Sweatshops

The U.S. has a history of protecting workers with the creation of labor laws and regulations, yet American corporations are disregarding these laws in countries they outsource work to. While this keeps prices low, it is contrary to American ideals and sacrifices fundamental human rights and worker safety. In order to uphold the United States title as the leaders of the free world, it is necessary to address this issue.

Along with moral implications, this would show that internationally, the U.S. cares about the fair treatment of non U.S. citizens. Women and Global Human Rights said that, "Common abuses include low wages that fail to meet basic costs of living, substandard and unsafe working and living conditions, long hours of overtime for which employees are not compensated...Sweatshops often fail to pay their employees on time, if at all. The workers, who are often unaware of their rights, have no choice but to continue to work because sweatshop managers threaten and punish them for insubordination." These conditions are unacceptable. Clearly, fundamental human rights are being violated. The U.S. is known for providing labor regulations to prevent these kinds of situations, yet its corporations are not following them in other countries.

Most companies would agree sweatshops are bad for business. The discovery of a corporation using sweatshops can result in a loss of credibility, therefore a drop in profit and current and potential investors. The answer if sweatshops are justified has already been answered, no. However, the more important question is how to solve the existing problem. Daniel Viederman, CEO of Verité and recipient of the 2011 Social Entrepreneur of the Year explained that, "From 11 years of social monitoring, our organization knows where and when problems exist—and the companies do, too. The task at hand is investing in solutions, which are complicated but urgent and ultimately good business for everybody. To get there, companies have to measure themselves—and consumers, investors, and advocates have to measure companies—on how they meet this challenge."

In order to fix the problem of corporations using sweatshops, companies must make long term investments in the fixing of the problem, but that alone is not enough. Consumers, investors, and the companies themselves must measure corporations actions and insist on change if any real progress is to be made.