The New York State Department of Labor offers this business guide to help manufacturers and retailers identify and avoid sweatshops when seeking apparel contractors.
Sweatshops operate illegally as part of the underground economy.
Sweatshops flourish because of the huge competitive advantage they hold over legitimate businesses that pay fair wages, provide safe working conditions, pay taxes and contribute to the economic and social health of New York and the nation. Although sweatshops routinely can produce garments at lower cost than honest shops, a company that enters into a contract with a sweatshop faces the possibility of civil penalties, criminal fines and the loss of goods that are illegally produced. Doing business with a sweatshop also means a company encounters the risk of having its public reputation damaged. We in the New York State Department of Labor recognize and applaud the important contributions of the garment industry. We hope that you find this guide useful.