KOREA: Export Processing Sweat Shop

The Tong De Moon area of Seoul has numerous sweatshops. Hours are long, pay low, and working conditions undesirable. Workers may be housed in dormitories contiguous to the work place. This allows maximum use of labor, with workers available for long shifts and overtime on demand. Korean workers have one of the longest work weeks in Asia, with an average of fifty-six hours per week. Factories will not hire married women and will not keep in their employ a woman who is pregnant or has children. If such a situation arises, the woman may go to work in the bars or work in the large informal economy that underpins the larger market economy.