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sweatshop
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sweatshop Workers in a New York City sweatshop, 1908.
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sweatshop
sweatshop Boss admonishing an employee in a sweatshop; illustration from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Nov. 3, 1888.

sweatshop

labor
Also known as: sweating
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History

sweatshop, workplace in which workers are employed at low wages and under unhealthy or oppressive conditions. In England, the word sweater was used as early as 1850 to describe an employer who exacted monotonous work for very low wages. “Sweating” became widespread in the 1880s, when immigrants from eastern and southern Europe provided an influx of cheap labour in the United States and central Europe. An increase in industrialization in the 20th century saw sweatshops...

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