A sweatshop is defined as a factory where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours in unsafe working environments (Oxford Dictionary, 2011). The exploiters are mainly associated with the apparel industries, such as Nike, Gap, Walmart, Primemark and other brands. The history of sweatshops begins in the 1830s with garment factories in New York and London, even then the working conditions were terrible, for example infested with rats. Since the 1850s, workers' unions have improved "sweatshop" conditions in the first world, and the term "sweatshop" is more associated with factories in developing countries. The statement that “sweatshops in developing countries are better than no jobs” has many arguments for and against them, which will be analyzed in this essay. Wages are classified as below the “living wage” and are not enough to support a family. Workers are paid less than 1% of the retail price of the product, for example, workers at a Honduran clothing factory were paid $0.24 for each $50 Sean John sweatshirt (Sean John Setisa Report, 2003) . We are often shocked by salaries in developing countries, but we must analyze salaries based on the standards of the country where they are paid. In developing countries the main concern is food and shelter, so when living standards are low, money can go much further. “Sweatshops” provide unemployed people who struggle to find paid work, food, shelter and medicine, thus reducing (child) mortality rates and may even provide enough money to provide an education for the family's offspring. This gives younger generations the chance to improve their future quality of life, with a wider variety of career opportunities and a better salary. ACIT (2000) writes that the multinational...... half of the newspaper ...... published on 1 April 2014]. Stepp, W. (2001) 'Nike is Right', Mises daily, 14 March. Available at: http://mises.org/daily/628. [April 1, 2014] http://everydayecon.wordpress.com/2006/05/18/the-economics-of-sweatshops/ - better than the alternative, agrees with sweatshopsAcademic Consortium on International Trade (2000) Letter to University Presidents and colleges. Available at: http://www.spp.umich.edu/rsie/acit/ [Accessed 1 April 2014]Zwolinski, M. (2012) Top 3 Ways Sweatshops Help the Poor Escape Poverty . Available at: http://www.learnliberty.org/videos/top-3-ways-sweatshops-help-poor-escape-poverty/ [Accessed 1 April 2014] Gillespie, L. (2013) ' Outsourced by Children', The Moulton Advertiser, 19 September. Available at: http://www.moultonadvertiser.com/opinion/columnists/columnist_one/article_75929e8c-2090-11e3-8756-0019bb2963f4.html [Accessed 1 April 2014]