…so, where can I find the cheapest labor (non-child) in the world? 
Can any country beat Nicaragua’s minimum wage of $0.09 USD per hour? (And I thought China was cheap at $0.39 USD per hour… HA!)
Don’t be silly. Who would buy sweat?
Apparently you don’t have cable and watch the late-night infomercials.
The Japanese. (Warning: a few naughty words on that page).
I could donate some sweat if its for a good cause
According to this site: www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,640438,00.html
Russia has the lowest minimum wage in Europe - £0.04p per hour. This is about US$0.06, which is even lower than Nicaragua’s minimum wage.
But before you can open a sweatshop, you can’t just rely on the labor costs. You also have to take into consideration your overhead, including shipping costs and times, training of the employees (it’s no good getting the cheapest labor if the t-shirts you make are all returned to you by the retailer for manufacturing defects) and any import costs & quotas (I believe quotas will all be eliminated in 2005 - but it’s been a while since I dealt with them).
If there is a trained labor force - South and Central America come to mind - manufacturers have been pulling out of the region to some extent and switching manufacturing to China & India, facilities, equipment and a trade agreement like the Caribbean Basin Trade Parity Agreement (assuming you’re a U.S. based company or selling to one and importing into the U.S), total costs may be less than in the country with the lowest costs for just labor (though that’s still doubtful).
Too, you’ll have to put up with inspections by any company you contract with and/or the retailers you sell to. These will lead to corrections that have to be made - no fire exits? Gotta build some. Your major retailers have started coming down harder on manufacturers - and those are where the money is, so that’s really who you want to sell to. At the same time, all it takes is one inspector coming in and learning what you’re doing to prevent you from doing business with that retailer again.
For your basic question? I’d look at some of the African countries covered under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
In this neck of the woods, upholstered furniture has been a main industry. That is why I am in Mississippi. In just the last 5 years or so, imports have become very important. That is why I sold my company that made items used in the manufacture of upholstered furniture. I personally always thought the danger was from Mexico, but instead it is coming from China. Mostly it is furniture that is built so the arms and backs can be attached to the seat or base (knock down). There are some manufacturers that import the fabric pre-cut and pre-sewn (China). The upholsterers build the pieces using frames built with imported plywood (Russia). In another case I heard of a company that was making knock-down desks, tables, cabinettes, etc. for Wal-Mart. They built their products using chip board covered with veneer. The owner went to Russia and found a company that would make the same items out of solid wood much cheaper than his company could. He came home and laid off all of his employees and converted the building into a warehouse. I’ve heard stories from other industries that follow the same theme. Scary stuff
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[sup]No wonder we have been losing jobs.[/sup][/ul]
Just do what Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, and all the other big clothing lines do: Outsource your stuff to a sweatshop. Then you don’t have to worry about all the labor laws, training, etc., etc. You just give 'em your designs and have someone else make it for you. Everybody’s doing that these days.
tuckerfan I’d say your assertation is generally incorrect. The big name companies, Nike is one in particular, that while they do outsource, those outsourced companies and factories are investigated and monitored.
I have seen a definate trend over the past 5 years in China that factory conditions at the outsourcers have improved markedly owing increased monitoring. I’ve got buddies that outsource, and others that monitor.
Certainly there are still sweatshops in China. However, it isn’t worth it to the big names to risk a boycott when they can pay slightly more and get a “non” sweatshop outsourcer.
Agreed, China Guy. I left the employ of a U.S. based apparel manufacturer last August, and one of the things I noticed in my 2.5 year stint with them was a definite increase in the amount of monitoring from within the company as well as from the customers.
A sweatshop problem is a PR nightmare for a retailer, and they’re going to try to avoid them where possible for that reason, even if no other issues were involved.
I believe that Gap does all their own outsourcing as opposed to places like Wal-Mart or JC Penney that use their projections to order specific styles and brands from manufacturers. Those manufacturers then produce the items in either owned factories or contract factories - and the number of countries that have manufacturing facilities is amazing.
Not having been to China, I’ll take your word for it. I worked for Gap for about 4 years and they certainly made claims that they kept a close watch on their vendors, but how true that was, I can’t say. I know that until their sales started plunging, they treated the US employees pretty well (too well in some cases), so I don’t consider it beyond the realm of possibility that they were honest when they said they watched the conditions in their vendors factories closely. They also didn’t use places like Third World nations exclusively. There were some US made garmets and garmets made in Israel and Russia. I must admit that even if the workers in the various plants are treated well, I don’t like the fact that they’re so low-paid in comparison to US workers.
The most recent report on the subject of Nike and sweatshops I could find was from 2000 and was compiled by groups with a clear bias against sweatshops. One hopes thinks have improved in the last three years. IMHO most people probably don’t think about labor issues regularly and those who do probably don’t think about Nikes or whatever other clothing being manufactured in sweatshops.
Here’s a Snopes article about a guy trying to get the word “sweatshop” on his Nikes. Pretty amusing.