If you are buying American, you tend to think that you won’t be buying from a sweatshop.
Maybe we need to start including a tag that designates whether or not the item was made in California, at least according to a report.
USA Today writes, “A survey of garment-sewing manufacturers in Southern California found that some employees were working in what officials called “sweatshops,” with certain workers making as little as $1.58 per hour.
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division released its 2022 Southern California Garment Survey, based on data from 50 garment contractors and manufacturers.
“Despite our efforts to hold Southern California’s garment industry employers accountable, we continue to see people who make clothes sold by some of the nation’s leading retailers working in sweatshops,” Wage and Hour Regional Administrator Ruben Rosalez said in a news release.
‘Many people shopping for clothes in stores and online are likely unaware that the ‘Made in the USA’ merchandise they’re buying was, in fact, made by people earning far less than the U.S. law require,’ he added.”
Business Insider recently discussed the ways that clothing manufacturers practice illegal practices.
“Over a third of garment makers falsified their payroll records, investigators found, while more than a quarter kept no documentation at all. And while California in 2021 banned piece rate wages, where workers are paid based on how much they produce, the Department of Labor discovered that 32% of those investigated were still doing it, resulting in take-home pay that sometimes fell below the legal minimum.
Even with such low pay, theft by employers continues to be a major issue: between 2017 and 2022, the Department of Labor collected $10.4 million in back wages and penalties, including $9.2 million from companies in Southern California alone.
‘Despite our efforts to hold Southern California’s garment industry employers accountable, we continue to see people who make clothes sold by some of the nation’s leading retailers working in sweatshops,’ Ruben Rosalez, part of the department’s wage and hour division, said in a statement. ‘Many people shopping for clothes in stores and online are likely unaware that the ‘Made in the USA’ merchandise they’re buying was, in fact, made by people earning far less than the US law requires.'”
While many friends of the working class might be upset at the news that the Golden State is harboring sweatshops, it had little impact on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s schedule. He has spent the last few days with a laser-like focus on what Florida universities are doing and complaining about the state legislature of Tennessee.
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