De Anda 1 Cesar De Anda Professor Ditch ENGL115 5 December 2013 The United States and Exploitation Exploitation is defined

as the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work according to Merriam-Webster Online. In essence its using someone for profit regardless of what the conditions are. In the United States of America, there is an abundance of overseas factories, which are used for cheap labor. Not only is it cheap labor but also the conditions in which they work are rather harsh. Not only does this occur in overseas factories, but also here in the United States. The exploitation of workers nationally and internationally is immoral. Apart from being immoral, cheap labor is not as cheap as it sounds. There needs to come a change and put an end to the exploitation of workers and cheap labor overseas and here in the United States. Big companies such as Wal-Mart, Nike, McDonalds, Apple, Starbucks, to name a few, rake in billions of dollars annually according to an article on CNN with Wal-Mart coming out on top with an annual revenue of 469.2 billion dollars. Their sales are tremendous here in the United States and worldwide. The owners of said companies continue earning a ridiculous amount of money at the cost of cheap labor. Employees working for low wages. All these 5 companies have the exact same thing in common and that is the use of oversea factories in which workers are paid measly amounts of cash to produce goods, which are sold at absurd prices here in the United States. This goes for every single one of these major companies.

De Anda 2 These companies produce mass amount of materials at low cost and sell them for absurd prices. Its done with almost all products here in the United States? Oversea workers are met with harsh work environments, long hours usually going from twelve to sixteen hour shifts. With pay thats so ludicrous. The pay isnt enough for the cost of living. Its nowhere near the minimum wage that is paid here in the United States. Workers overseas are exploited due to lack of labor laws and with big companies eyeing big profits due to cheap labor, it only makes sense for them to continue exploiting the workers, but at what cost? Since when did making a profit become more important than caring for human life? In some factories, there are cases of child labor, with the same conditions faced as any other worker. Long hours, poor work conditions, and ridiculous pay. A child shouldnt be working and to make matters worse not in these conditions. Big company executives dont seem to care, as their eyes are fixed on the green and are willing to do go to whatever extremes to continue raking in the green. According to an article from Bloomberg News Workers at the Huasheng crafts factory in the southern China city of Guangzhou work 14 hours a day seven days a week during peak production season and can earn 22 percent less than the 41- cent per-hour minimum wage in Guangdong Province, according to New York-based China Labor Watch and the National Labor Committee. Wal-Mart is one of the biggest employers here in the United States and more than a third of their employers earn less than twenty five thousand annually. Wal-Mart is the worlds largest retailer bringing in over $16 billion in profits for the 2012 fiscal calendar year. How can the largest retailer in the US get away with paying most of its employees unsustainable wages at $8.81 per hour? It astonishes how a company, which makes a grand amount of profit, only, pays their workers about the minimum required by law. The average cost of living, according to the

De Anda 3 Bureau of Labor Statistics, is 21.106 dollars. Thats the amount per person. How does a person with a family cope with it? When what you earn isnt enough to help sustain your family what do you do? You seek financial help through public assistance programs such as welfare. With many employees earning minimum wage, they turn to public assistance programs to make end meet. Now one must wonder how is that bad? That is what the programs are there for. Well, with the majority or employees of big corporations earning minimum wage, the cost of living is just too much for them so they get welfare. Now the funding for public assistance programs such as welfare, where exactly do the funds come from? You got it, taxpayer dollars. According to a Berkeley study, fast food restaurants cost taxpayers seven billion dollars a year. Keep in mind this is only for fast food restaurants as most of their employees are on some sort of public assistance program. This doesnt include the workers of other corporations such as Wal-Mart. Not only are corporations making huge amounts of profit due to their low pay rates to their workers, but also they essentially make taxpayers that are in fact us pay for their shortcomings. Seven billion dollars a year is what costs taxpayers for fast foods cheap labor. While they make billions and billions more, were made to pay for what they dont pay. Thats rather unfair. Imagine what all that money can go to if relocated somewhere else. All this can be solved. It needs to be solved. From the unfair conditions in overseas factories to the high cost of cheap labor here in the United States. Increase the wages of workers in overseas factories; make for better work environments here in the United States and overseas. For companies that make billions in profit, how much could it affect you by dropping some of the profit to make a better work environment? To better the wages of the workers who are

De Anda 4 struggling to make it in todays world. Are certain individuals so obsessed with making money that they would exploit workers in order to make more profit? All that is really required is the increase of wages for worker across the states and overseas. The worst that could possibly happen with an increase in wages is the increase of prices from certain companies, but would that really pose an issue? Regardless people will still buy and would increasing prices really be necessary with the increase in wages? Large companies will still be making a healthy amount of profit and if the profit isnt good enough, hike up prices by a little bit and their profits will increase. With that change, everyone will have benefited. Better wages and work environments workers, less dependence on public assistance programs such as welfare and that money could be relocated somewhere else, to education anyone? And companies will continue making a healthy profit; its basically a win-win. All large corporations have to do is improve work conditions; it isnt much to ask. It shouldnt be much to do either. If nothing changes, the same conditions will continue and workers overseas will still work in the most undesirable work environments and with ridiculous pay. As for here in the United States, taxpayers money will continue to go to welfare due to the unfair wages in todays world. Money which could be used in other departments. Its time for things to change and its time for big corporations to stop being greedy and unfair. Its time for corporations to stop exploiting their workers. Its time for a change.

De Anda 5 Works Cited Exploitation Merriam-Webster Online. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2011 Lochner-Coleman, Lauren. Bloomberg News Wal-Mart's Chinese Plants Exploit Workers 15 Dec. 2006 Web. 6 Nov. 2013 Ervin, Crystal. Walmart Exposed over Employee Pay and Discrimination Guardianlv. 8 Sep. 2013