What is a sweatshop?

The working definition of a sweatshop as defined by the US General Accounting Office is a place in which "an employer...violates more than one federal or state labor, industrial homework, occupational safety and health, workers' compensation, or industry regulation law."

So what does that mean? Basically, any workplace in which workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including the absence of a living wage, worker's benefits, and acceptable working conditions, is a sweatshop. Often, sweatshop workers, generally young girls aged 14-25, work 60-80 hours a week and still aren't paid enough money to put food on the table and give medicine to their children. These women are forced to walk home through dangerous streets in the middle of the night because they often don't have enough pocket change to take a bus. There have been many instances where female workers have been robbed, raped, or even murdered while they are trying to get home to their families.