Esmeralda Bordales Pay Stub
date: label: date made
content: 1995
notes: label: Description
content: Esmeralda Bordales was an illegal immigrant working for S&K Fashion, a small apparel manufacturing operation in the Los Angeles garment district. Although her pay stub indicates that she worked 40 hours and received $ 155.30 neither are probably true. Sweatshop workers toil long hours and are almost always paid by the piece.
label: Description
content: On August 2, 1995, police officers raided a fenced compound of seven apartments in El Monte, California. They arrested eight operators of a clandestine garment sweatshop and freed 72 illegal Thai immigrants who had been forced to sew in virtual captivity. Authorities also raided the front shop where Esmerelda worked. The 50 to 80 Latina employees in the front shop provided the theoretical source of garment production when representatives from retailers and manufacturers came to inspect facilities and the merchandise they ordered. However, even this shop was in violation of wage and hour codes. Workers, mostly women, finished the garments, put them on hangers, and added tags in preparation for delivery to stores and manufacturers.
place: label: used
content: United States: California, Los Angeles
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: El Monte
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content: Work
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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content: American Enterprise
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content: Sweatshops
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1997.0336.29
label: accession number
content: 1997.0336
label: catalog number
content: 1997.0336.29
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pay stub
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 3/8 in x 3 1/8 in; 6.0325 cm x 7.9375 cm