Sweatshops

United Students Against Sweatshops. (n.d.). United Students Against Sweatshops. Retrieved May 8, 2006, from http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/ 
 
This website seems like it will also be very useful, you just have to know exactly what you're looking for before you get on the site. It seems to contain a lot of information about the campuses that use sweatshops to manufacture their clothes. It's also up to date and cutting edge information. The data for sweatshops are hidden within the numerous links and articles and other general information. It's from this website that you can find data about how wage increases will affect the retail price. The statistics is already done and you and you just need to interpret it.
 
 
Bender, D. E. (2004). Sweated work, weak bodies : anti-sweatshop campaigns and languages of labor . New Brunswick, NY: Rutgers University Press.

If you have time to go to the library and check out this book, it could be really useful background information and general information about sweatshops. Since this book is about anti-sweatshops, it contains useful information about the questions that are generally posed (Is it feasible to be profitable without a sweatshop? And other questions of that kind). This book defines sweatshops and tells about the history of the sweatshops and how the sweatshops have affected the economy and the people that have been forced to live through it. It is long but sections of it can be useful.

Mathiasen, C., & Voorhes, M. (1998). The sweatshop quandary : corporate responsibility on the global frontier (P. Varley, Ed.). Washington, DC: Investor Responsibility Research Center

This book discusses the corporate responsibility that corporations have when using sweatshops. It takes another spin on sweatshops by looking at it through corporations rather than through the immorality of it and the pain it causes. This is useful, if you are willing to look through a long book, because you can see it from another side, the side of the corporations and how they’ve affected the economy and people because of their sweatshops. There are stories and data that are in defense of the sweatshops and then there are other stories and data that are against the sweatshops. This book talks about the quest for a universal code and compliance scheme and tells the story of corporations that use sweatshops through data and tales from the factory floor.

Minimum Wage

U.S. Department of Labor. (2006, April 3). Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division. In Minimum Wage Laws in the States. Retrieved May 15, 2006, from <http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm>

This website seems like it'd be a really useful source to get data about minimum wage. On the front page there is a map of the United States with each state colored a different color for where federal and state laws have different minimum wage rates. Then below the map there is information about each state, their listed minimum wage and “Premium Pay After Designated Hours”, and just general information about the minimum wage and workday. This website also includes answers to frequently asked questions, and other general information. Though to answer the questions posed on my question sheet you would have to use other data and perform statistical magic on it. This website is a good starting point for the basic information about minimum wage.

Machin, S., & Manning, A. (1994, January). The Effects of Minimum Wages on Wage Dispersion and Employment: Evidence from the U.K. Wages Councils. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 47 (2), 319-329. Retrieved May 11, 2006, from JSTOR database: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0019-7939%28199401%2947%3A2%3C319%3ATEOMWO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7

I think that this source could be quite useful for information about minimum wage and what the effects are on a certain country. In this article, using data on wages council coverage from the UK New earnings Survey, the authors examine the impact of mandated minimum wages on wage dispersion and employment in the UK. This information and data they found seems consistent with the conclusions of several recent U.S. studies that suggest that the minimum wage had either no effect or a positive effect on employment. The work has already been done and some of the questions I posed are being answered by this article, using statistical information and data already compiled. Reading this article would be useful.

Gramlich, E. M., Flanagan, R. J., & Wachter, M. L. (1976). Impact of Minimum Wages on Other Wages, Employment, and Family Incomes. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1976(2), 409-461. Retrieved May 10, 2006, from JSTOR database: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0007-2303%281976%291976%3A2%3C409%3AIOMWOO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T

This article is also going to be fairly useful. These authors did some thorough research and found out the impact of the minimum wage on other wages [i.e. the living wage] and employment and family incomes. These authors are trying to evaluate the standpoint that minimum wage is an attempt to alter the distribution if income. There’s data and statistical information in here to support their ideas. It answers questions that are posed about minimum wage and its effectiveness.