Sweatshops

Benjamin Powell and David Skarbek write on sweatshop wages in the Christian Science Monitor:

While more than half of the population in most of the countries we studied lived on less than $2 per day, in 90 percent of the countries, working a 10-hour day in the apparel industry would lift a worker above - often far above - that standard. For example, in Honduras, the site of the infamous Kathy Lee Gifford sweatshop scandal, the average apparel worker earns $13.10 per day, yet 44 percent of the country's population lives on less than $2 per day.

Boycotting imported goods is unlikely to help poor workers: their alternatives may be worse, perhaps much worse. The research is published by the Independent Institute; thanks to EconLog.