Features

My Life for Fashion: The Child Labor Crisis

Liz Joseph, Editor-in-Chief • January 29, 2024

The functions of current sweatshops.

*This article covers child labor used in the fashion empire, but there are numerous processes taking place today. *

The buzz you receive after exiting a store having not spent hundreds of dollars on considerably high concentrations of clothes, accessories, etc., is like no other. As you make your way back home, you picture all the assorted outfits you can create and sport at school or work next week. You don’t give mind to the fact that every piece of clothing will likely rip or shrink in the wash/dryer, or that every piece of jewelry will turn your skin green. And you certainly don’t give mind to the children in Asia or South America sitting in a sweatshop making those things you’re so gladly prancing home with.

An image of the first sweatshops and what they looked like.

Child labor was introduced in the early 20^th century. It was used for factory work, mining, and fields back then. Nowadays, many of the most successful, international conglomerates partake in this cruel abuse of power to produce products the public adores. The luxuries we so desperately cling to are the product of a contorted, borderline abusive style of production that needs to be examined and fully understood by the world’s enormous youth population. Especially among the more fortunate youth, comprehending the appalling conditions of child labor enables further exploration of businesses and how large companies abuse their power to please customers. Child labor is recognizably abhorrent to those who understand it; we must grow that population.

People typically choose to brush off or ignore the circumstance of child labor either because they feel it doesn’t directly affect them, or they don’t understand it enough to peak interest. To clear up any confusion or speculation, here are the basic facts to know regarding child labor:

Today, there is a global estimate of 218 million children from age 5-17 working under dangerous conditions
Child laborers create both organic products, like food, and synthetic products, like toys and clothing
The dangers posed by child labor include the equipment, environment (toxic fume exposure), and abuse from authority
Children as young as 6 can work up to 110 hours a week (that’s over 15 hours per day)
Because products created at the expense of child labor are so cheap, the process is indirectly encouraged by anyone who purchases the cheap luxuries

One of the most successful companies involved in child labor: Nike.

Now that the conditions of fast fashion have been familiarized, here are some of the largest companies that currently practice child labor. See how many you recognize:

Shein
Adidas
H&M
Forever 21
Nike
Uniqlo
Zara

As addictive as the products these companies generate are, the price paid by many less fortunate than people who can afford to indulge in said products must be considered. I previously mentioned the conditions of most child labor facilities—sweatshops—and how dangerous they are, but let’s compare that to an average, safe factory to really hone in on the difference between the two.

Regular Work Facility

Facilities Using Child Labor

– Safe working conditions: safety gear, regular breaks, emergency exits, caution signs, proper equipment

– Wages range: $15.38-18.03 an hour

– Weekly work hours range: 38-40hours

– Worker benefits: medical, dental, life insurance, disability plans, spending accounts

– Ages range: 20-40 years old

– Dangerous working conditions: abuse from authority, little to no breaks, poor environmental protection, located in extremely hot or cold climates

– Wages range: 0.50-0.60 cents a day

– Weekly work hours range: 95-100 hours

– Worker benefits: close to none

– Ages range from 5-17 years old

^ This information accounts for sweatshops with child laborers scattered across the Middle East and South America

If this still doesn’t express the extremities of child labor, I want you to imagine you’re grown up with children. Every day before you go to work, you drop your toddler off at a building without signs or guards, and most likely in incredibly poor condition. The minute your child walks through those doors, they enter an entirely different world, a world that most can scarcely even dream of. In this building, your child is beaten, cursed at, sewing clothes until their fingers bleed, either sweating from the heat or shivering from the cold, and doesn’t get a single break. Inside this building, your child works tirelessly to, most likely, create something you see on a hangar in your favorite store the next day and decide to buy for the low price of just $9.95. While at the register, you give no mind to the thought of your child’s broken fingers sewing the fabric—stitch by stitch, their innocence is ripped away without a second thought from their employer.

If that sequence of events made you in the least bit uncomfortable, remember that you encourage that behavior any time you purchase from the companies listed above (and those don’t even account for 0.1% of the companies in America that use child labor).

A young girl working in an old sweatshop factory.

The extrapolation of income and fame based on the large quantities of items child labor produces is one of the main reasons child labor still exists today. Because the factories are in such gruesome conditions, it’s cheap to make the clothes or toys or whatever the product is because the expense of upkeep isn’t accounted for. Instead of using money for paychecks or benefits or safe working conditions, it all goes to the material needed to create more products to generate more revenue. The more sweatshops create the more products they can sell for less. Because of this, you can purchase ten shirts for under $50 without giving mind to the starving child who sewed on its buttons and clipped its loose threads. This concept is known as “fast fashion” –which only accounts for sweatshops that manufacture clothing. Fast fashion has become the shopping norm; companies like Shein and Forever 21 have annual revenues ranging from 4-22 billion U.S. dollars. As high as these numbers are, they aren’t very surprising considering how easily humans are convinced to purchase cheap goods. The only thing prompting skepticism about these companies is how the inefficient fabric may rip a few days after purchase. People may even recognize this as “fast fashion” but may not be familiar with what it entails—some people have simply categorized “fast fashion” as cheap clothing that rips easily—which completely disregards the process of harming young children and does absolutely nothing to solve the problem.

In retrospect, the colonizers who first introduced the process of child labor should’ve been the last. As many young kids—and adults—risk their lives for fashion, consumers gorge themselves on trendy t-shirts and camp jeans. Luckily, since the fast fashion market has become widespread through social media and the news, efforts have been enacted to help put an end to this heinous insult to fashion and industry. One of the more popular initiatives is the Department of State Anti-Sweatshop Initiative which provides grant money to private sectors that help eliminate abusive work conditions and protect overseas worker rights. This initiative helps generate strategies to combat overseas sweatshops producing goods for U.S. profit. Because this initiative focuses primarily on overseas sweatshops—as most are concentrated in South America and the Middle East—policies are being created as we speak to halt the creation and maintenance of sweatshops within the United States.

I will ask this again; would you willingly send your children or family to work in an abusive environment where they’re treated like dirt and viewed as vermin? The children and families working in sweatshops around the world may not be your direct family, but they still deserve rights and exemptions from the hell they see every day. I’ll also ask this; would your life be over if you stopped shopping at the stores using child labor? Numerous brands and companies don’t adhere to the cruelties of sweatshops. These places are worth your time and money. And if you prefer fast fashion because it’s cheap, I ask you; would you rather save money or save a life?

To end off, here is a list of companies that practice safe working environments: