A sweatshop is basically any factory where workers’ basic human rights are violated. The employees are forced to work long hours at low wages and suffer from health and safety hazards due to the poor environment that they are forced to work in. Also the workers are not allowed to form independent unions and lack of benefits is an obvious. Sweatshops came about in America in the 19th century during the time the United States started to industrialize. Many immigrants that arrived in the U.S. at this time period worked in sweatshops along side with their families. With few government policies that dealt with working conditions, hours, or pay at this time (19th century) the manufacturers were allowed to place enormous demands on their workers. There are still sweatshops in the United States but many started to disappear after the 20th century when the federal government started to pass laws protecting workers rights. Some sweatshops still operate illegally in the states today. Many of the sweatshops in this country are located in major cities. Cities such as California, New York, Dallas, Miami, and Atlanta. Most likely there are sweatshops in every country but a good majority of them are located in poorer nations. Nations where they can find people so poor that it is easy to exploit them.
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/backgroundandresources.html