Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-lrblm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-25T21:20:05.180Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Ethics of Sweatshops and the Limits of Choice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2015

Michael Kates
Michael Kates*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This article examines the “Choice Argument” for sweatshops, i.e., the claim that it is morally wrong or impermissible for third parties to interfere with the choice of sweatshop workers to work in sweatshops. The Choice Argument seeks, in other words, to shift the burden of proof onto those who wish to regulate sweatshop labor. It does so by forcing critics of sweatshops to specify the conditions under which it is morally permissible to interfere with sweatshop workers’ choice. My aim in this article is to meet that burden. Unlike other critics of sweatshop labor, however, my argument does not proceed from contested economic or moral assumptions. To the contrary, my strategy will be to demonstrate that even if we grant the truth of the economic and moral assumptions made by defenders of the Choice Argument, it nevertheless does not follow that it is morally wrong to interfere with the choice of sweatshop workers to work in sweatshops. The Choice Argument thus fails on its own terms.

Keywords

sweatshopschoiceautonomypreferencelabor regulation
Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , April 2015 , pp. 191 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alatas, V., & Cameron, L. A. 2008. The impact of minimum wages on employment in a low-income country: A quasi-natural experiment in Indonesia. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 61: 201–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, D. 2003a. Philosophical foundations: Moral reasoning, human rights, and global labor practices. In Hartman, L., Arnold, D., & Wokutch, R. E. (Eds.), Rising above sweatshops: Innovative approaches to global labor challenges:. Westport, CT: Praeger. pp. 77–101.Google Scholar
Arnold, D.. 2003b. Exploitation and the sweatshop quandary. Business Ethics Quarterly, 38: 53–67.Google Scholar
Arnold, D.. 2010a. Working conditions: Safety and sweatshops. In Brenkert, G. & Beauchamp, T. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of business ethics:. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 628–653.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, D.. 2010b. Transnational corporations and the duty to respect basic human rights. Business Ethics Quarterly, 20: 371–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, D., & Bowie, N. E. 2003. Sweatshops and respect for persons. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13: 221–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, D., & Bowie, N. E.. 2007. Respect for workers in global supply chains: Advancing the debate over sweatshops. Business Ethics Quarterly, 17: 135–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, D., & Hartman, L. 2003. Moral imagination and the future of sweatshops. Business and Society Review, 108: 425–461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, D., & Hartman, L. 2005. Beyond sweatshops: Positive deviancy and global labour practices. Business Ethics: A European Review, 14: 206–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, D., & Hartman, L. 2006. Worker rights and low wage industrialization: How to avoid sweatshops. Human Rights Quarterly, 28: 676–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bardhan, P. 2005. Scarcity, conflicts, and cooperation. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Barry, C., & Reddy, S. 2008. International trade and labor standards: A proposal for linkage. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Bhagwati, J. 2004. In defense of globalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bostrom, N., & Ord, T. 2006. The reversal test: Eliminating status quo bias in applied ethics. Ethics, 116: 656–679.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowie, N. E. 1999. Business ethics: A Kantian perspective. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bradsher, K., & Duhigg, C. 2012. Signs of changes taking hold in electronics factories in China. The New York Times, December 27: A1.Google Scholar
Coakley, M., & Kates, M. 2013. The ethical and economic case for sweatshop regulation. Journal of Business Ethics, 117: 553–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 1983. The structure of proletarian unfreedom. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 12: 3–33.Google Scholar
Cohen, G. A.. 1987. Are disadvantaged workers who take hazardous jobs forced to take hazardous jobs? In Ezorsky, G. (Ed.), Moral rights in the workplace:. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp. 61–80.Google Scholar
Dawkins, C. E. 2012. Labored relations: Corporate citizenship, labor unions, and freedom of association. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22: 473–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duhigg, C., & Baraboza, D. 2012. In China, human costs are built into an iPad. The New York Times, January 26: A1.Google Scholar
Elliot, K. A., & Freeman, R. B. 2004. White hats or Don Quixotes? Human rights vigilantes in the global economy. In Freeman, R. B., Hersch, J., & Mishel, L. (Eds.), Emerging labor market institutions in the twenty-first century:. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 47–98.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. B. 2009. Labor regulations, unions, and social protection in developing countries: Market distortion or efficient institutions? In Rodrik, D. & Rosenzweig, M. R. (Eds.), Handbook of Development Economics:. North Holland: Elsevier. pp. 4657–4702.Google Scholar
Hardin, R. 1988. Morality within the limits of reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Harrison, A., & Scorse, J. 2010. Multinationals and anti-sweatshop activism. American Economic Review, 100: 247–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartman, L, Arnold, D. & Wokutch, R. E. (Eds.). 2003. Rising above sweatshops: Innovative approaches to global labor challenges. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Krugman, P. 1997. In praise of cheap labor. Slate, March 21. http://www.slate.com/id/1918.Google Scholar
Kristof, N. 2006. In praise of the maligned sweatshop. The New York Times, June 6: A21.Google Scholar
Kristof, N. 2009. Where sweatshops are a dream. The New York Times, January 15: A35.Google Scholar
Kristof, N. & WuDunn, S. 2000. Two cheers for sweatshops. The New York Times, September 24: A21.Google Scholar
Locke, R. 2013. The promise and limits of private power. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucas, K., Kang, D., & Li, Z. 2013. Workplace dignity in a total institution: Examining the experiences of Foxconn’s migrant workforce. Journal of Business Ethics, 114: 91–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maitland, I. 1996. The great non-debate over international sweatshops. In Beauchamp, T. L. & Bowie, N. E. (Eds.), Ethical Theory and Business (6th ed.): 593–605. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Martinez-Mont, L. 1996. Sweatshops are better than no shops. Wall Street Journal, June 25: A14.Google Scholar
Mayer, R. 2007. Sweatshops, exploitation, and moral responsibility. Journal of Social Philosophy, 38: 605–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyers, C. 2004. Wrongful beneficence: Exploitation and third world sweatshops. Journal of Social Philosophy, 35: 319–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mill, J. S. 1965. Principles of political economy, Robson, J. M. (Ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Miller, J. 2003. Why economists are wrong about sweatshops and the anti-sweatshop movement. Challenge, 46: 93–122.Google Scholar
Moran, T. 2002. Beyond sweatshops: Foreign direct investment in developing countries. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Neumark, D., & Wascher, W. 2008. Minimum wages. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, M. 2000. Women and human Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsaretti, S. 1998. Freedom, force, and choice: Against the rights-based definition of voluntariness. The Journal of Political Philosophy, 6: 53–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsaretti, S. 2004. Liberty, desert, and the market. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, J. A. 2011. On measuring the effects of fiscal policy in recessions. Journal of Economic Literature, 49: 703–718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollin, R., Burns, J., & Heintz, J. 2004. Global apparel production and sweatshop labor: Can raising retail prices finance living wages? Cambridge Journal of Economics, 28: 153–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, B. 2014. Out of poverty: Sweatshops in the global economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, B., & Zwolinski, M. 2012. The ethical and economic case against sweatshop labor: A critical assessment. Journal of Business Ethics, 107: 449–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preiss, J. 2014. Global labor justice and the limits of economic analysis. Business Ethics Quarterly, 24: 55–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rama, M. 2001. The consequences of doubling the minimum wage: The case of Indonesia. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 54: 864–881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, J. 1999. A theory of justice (rev. ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, A. 2009. The idea of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Snyder, J. C. 2008. Needs exploitation. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 11: 389–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snyder, J. C. 2010. Exploitation and sweatshop labor: Perspectives and issues. Business Ethics Quarterly, 20: 187–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walzer, M. 1983. Spheres of justice: A defense of pluralism and equality. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Wertheimer, A. 1996. Exploitation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wettstein, F. 2009. Multinational corporations and global justice: Human rights obligations of a quasi governmental institution. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Wettstein, F. 2012. CSR and the debate on business and human rights: Bridging the great divide," Business Ethics Quarterly, 22: 739–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zwolinski, M. 2007. Sweatshops, choice, and exploitation. Business Ethics Quarterly, 17: 689–727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar