What do you guys think of Nike paying sweatshops workers $1 a day.
Is it a case of supply and demand or bad work ethics by Nike for paying factory workers a wage that is below living standards..
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Define 'living standards'.
being able to eat and pay rent... we talked about this in class about how unethical it was to employ sweatshop workers but I feel like they are taking these jobs in the sweatshops because it obviously pays higher than another job in the area.. Why would someone work for $1 an hour at a sweatshop if you can work for $2 somewhere else?
Obviously, these people somehow manage to be able to eat and pay rent if they are still alive and work there. Why is it unethical to pay the market wage that reflects the level of productivity in the country? Isn't it unethical to allow banks to make innocent college kids work 100 hours per week, putting them at risk of cardiovascular problems because of stress and lack of sleep? As far as I know, US universities encourage banks to do that, college kids pay tuition because they hope to be exploited by employers and this money flows into the pockets of professors that condemn the very system that they support by working in it. Isn't your professor unethical by exploiting immigrant Phd's by making them work 80 hours per week for what is considered close to minimum wage in the US just because their other choice is to return to their third-world countries?
Well, if Nike were to pay US wage, that would mean that consumers and shareholders will pay more than they need to in order to help the children of Africa and Asia. Ask your classmates and professors whether they would be willing to part with half of what they have or earn so that these poor children can live a life that is respectable by US standards. This is the same principle that underlies the argument that the company should pay more just to be 'ethical' to these workers.
something to address this travesty should be added on as demand #14
beats being a prostitute in bangkok
exit opps?
Bonus potential?
I think it's a beautiful example of free market capitalism
$1 goes a lot further in Southeast Asia than it does over here. From what I've read, these workers are all shacked up and fed on Nike's dime, so I don't feel too bad for them.
If you want cheap nike gear,don't concern yourself with their workers.
Too lazy to look up the source, but sweatshop workers in 3rd world countries make better wages than those of similar skill levels in other jobs.
If the pay is so bad then they're stupid for accepting it. 1$ there goes pretty far believe it or not..
Yah, a bunch of entitled assholes on WSO aren't going to have any empathy for people working for $1 a day- which is about 2 billion people. New Balance makes sneakers here in America, so just buy New Balance.
their other option is unemployment or working for 50 cents a day. in that light it doesnt seem so unethical
Wages are based on the relative productivity of an industry relative to other industries in the country. Therefore, if these workers weren't making $1 in a Nike sweatshop, you can bet they'd be making less / have a lower standard of living if they were working elsewhere.
outsourcing these jobs to other countries is done because American workers demand such a high wage and standard of living. It is not profitable for companies to pay american workers any longer. Either one of two things will happen:
Are you implying that the trick to maintaining our current standard of living is to manufacture sneakers?
not too bright, are ya?
Im implying nothing any type of correlation between the American wage earners SOL and sneakers. Im talking about the labor market for goods.
OP was talking about the outsourcing of low-tech apparel manufacturing jobs. Then you said if the outsourced jobs aren't brought back to the American worker, then Americans will be forced to "reduce their standard of living". I'm not sure how this doesn't imply what I said originally.
Besides, we're still the largest manufacturing nation (as far as I know, although China may have already passed us since I last looked at 2010 numbers), and our niche is high-tech products that emerging markets nations don't yet have the technology to develop and export. Shoes aren't made stateside for a good reason - they're a waste of our time.
Comparative advantage, how does it work?
Before that $1 a day, they weren't making even close to that. Expenses are also cheap as hell there. I only give a funny look when the people making the decision to move offshore can't figure out why on earth the displaced workers here take to the streets.
In the long run, living standards will even out a bit all over the world, but in the short term everyone is grabbing what they can however the hell they can.
The reality is that many young women in small poor agrarian villages are sent by their families to factory cities after saving up for months or years for the train ride. They have heard from a friend of a friend in another village that Xs daughter is sending home checks that help the family. They have more water buffalo than anyone else in the village. When young women get to the cities they sign labor agreements for fixed terms and have their IDs and travel papers taken by plant security. They live in dorms and realistically do nothing but work. Leaving the premisis can get a worker fined. So mostly they stay on the factory campus. They have room and board deducted from their pay. Usually they get paid when the factory owner gets paid. The factories don't make tons by our standards but by the workers standards they do. So when the owner decides he can pay them (rather than retaining earning for expansion) he pays them. In bad factories this can be very rarely and only when the workers stop working and the owner must give them something or risk losing his workers while on a very tight production deadline. Then they send that money home...pretty much all of it and their family doesn't starve when bad crops happen. But more and more often as the local workforce gets wise to which factories pay best, which honor agreements etc - the bad factories have a harder time on the labor market. They have to start importing workers from even poorer countries. And often they start leaning on the party to start censoring worker communications between each other to make it harder for workers to share info on labor markets. They also all non disclosure clauses of sorts to labor agreements, and withhold pay when they believe they are violated. (The development of the US textile and apparel industries was actually very very similar.)
Good or bad? Exploitation or not? I'm not entirely sure. But its the reality of the newly industrializing nation in 21st century globalization. No, it doesn't take a genius to run a seam up a pair of Levis. But there's a lot more to these labor markets than the standard supply and demand, costs disease arguments.
Sophie, this is a very interesting post. Do you have any links to articles that you could share that discuss these happenings? I'd like to read more.
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