Monitoring the 26,000 apparel manufacturing businesses is very difficult with only 800 Dept. of Labor inspectors. There is extensive competition both domestically and globally. Almost every country that gets involved with exports is involved with the apparel industry. It is an easy industry to get into because it doesn t take very much money and it doesn t take very much skill. At the same time we have a stagnant demand for clothing.
Consumers don t spend as much on clothing anymore.
They spend their dollars on other things. Since clothes are cheaper now in real dollars, the consumer can still buy more clothes. There is so much competition that it results in downward pressure on prices. In addition fashions change so fast that companies have to get clothes to market while they are still in demand. To do this, longer hours are pushed even though illegal.