sweating system

American  

noun

1. the practice of employing workers in sweatshops.

---

Etymology

Origin of sweating system

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

Irregularity of employment, or, more accurately speaking, insufficiency of employment--for the "irregularity" is itself regular--forms one of the most terrible phases of the sweating system.

From Problems of Poverty by Hobson, J. A. (John Atkinson)

The attempt to secure by legislation or by combination an eight hours day, or its equivalent, might seem to affect the "sweating system" most directly, as a restriction on excessive hours of labour.

From Problems of Poverty by Hobson, J. A. (John Atkinson)

Mr. Hoar's resolution for an inquiry into the so-called sweating system of tenement labor.

From United States Government Publications, v. 8 Jan-Jun 1892 A Monthly Catalog by Compiled

A margin of unemployed labour means a bare subsistence wage for low-skilled labour, and it means this wage earned under industrial conditions, such as we find under the "sweating system."

From Problems of Poverty by Hobson, J. A. (John Atkinson)

It is not on record that any one ever found a good word to say for the "sweating system."

From Comrade Yetta by Edwards, Albert