sweatshop

American  

[swet-shop] / ˈswɛtˌʃɒp /

noun

sweatshops plural

1. a shop, small factory, or other workplace employing workers at low wages, for long hours, and under poor conditions.

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sweatshop British  

/ ˈswɛtˌʃɒp /

noun

1. a workshop where employees work long hours under bad conditions for low wages

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sweatshop Cultural  

1. A small factory or shop in which employees are poorly paid and work under adverse conditions. Sweatshops were especially common in the garment industry during the early twentieth century.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• sweatshops
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sweatshop

First recorded in 1865–70; sweat + shop

Explanation

A sweatshop is a factory where workers are exploited and not allowed to unionize. You might not sweat in a sweatshop, but you probably work hard and under lousy conditions. In a sweatshop, workers slave away in poor conditions for low pay. Sweatshop workers — who often make clothing — aren't allowed to form unions, so they cannot protest their poor working conditions. In repressive countries that aren't looking out for their citizens, you're more likely to find sweatshops. An American corporation that uses sweatshops overseas could find itself in a lot of trouble.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sweatshop sweatshops

The fashion-magazine moment is long gone as Miranda deals with such alarming new trends as budget cuts, the imperative to cram her vision into annoying little video clips, and consumer sensitivity to sweatshop manufacturing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

Both leaders had famously tough childhoods -- Lee worked in a sweatshop to support his family, while Lula dropped out of school to sell peanuts and shine shoes.

From Barron's ● Feb. 23, 2026

They lived for a while in Harlem while his mother worked in a sweatshop and got by with the help of food stamps.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 15, 2024

However, over the last decade, workers in reality TV have grown increasingly vocal about the grueling hours, low pay and poor benefits they face in what has been likened to an industry sweatshop.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2023

When my mother was three months pregnant with my younger sister, Caroline, she was arrested in a sweatshop raid and spent three days in an immigration jail.

From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat

Franklin Roosevelt aptly referred to it as “this ancient atrocity” in 1933, when he signed a textile industry code that outlawed the employment of children younger than 16 in sweatshops.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2025

At the same time, "Fiddler" coincided with the Jewish exodus from tenements and sweatshops to suburban homes and professional opportunities.

From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2023

They lost control over immigration after a series of scandals over sweatshops — clothing companies that came in to make “Made in U.S.A.”-labeled clothes but paid workers pennies.

From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2023

The multinational technology company Apple Inc. has faced intense criticism in recent years for its use of foreign-owned sweatshops in Asia.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

Frankie’s blunt words shocked me almost as much as his description of the sweatshops.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

Related Words

• branch
• cooperative
• firm
• industry
• laboratory
• mill
• shop
• workshop