About twelve years ago, there were many suicides at the Foxconn City industrial park in China. Foxconn, the company that makes iPhones and other things, tried to stop it by putting nets around the building so people couldn’t jump from windows.

Even though this led to investigations and changes in rules to stop workers from being treated badly at Foxconn, the bigger issue of workers being treated unfairly around the world keeps getting worse.

A new study from the University of Kansas says that between 17-21 million workers worldwide are basically living like slaves. Even though some countries have laws against this and make companies check their supply chains, the article suggests more things that can be done to fix this big problem.

“I define ‘slavery’ in today’s environment as being forced to work in a job that you either are coerced to work in, not paid to work in or held in an environment where you don’t have a choice but to work in,” the author explains.

A widespread problem

Even though China often engages in workplace slavery, Europe, particularly Great Britain, sees the highest occurrence. This is largely due to the large number of immigrants, making it easy to slip in indentured servants or slave labor without much notice.

The desire for the lowest prices plays a part in this. The lowest prices come from not paying workers much. While there isn’t much data on how much worker exploitation happens in the United States, it is a hidden part of the supply chain.

“The most important thing is people must start looking at walking the process in their supply chain. Unfortunately, what’s happening now is most people are looking at their first level of suppliers … and they’re not looking any further than that. ‘I don’t care where you get it from as long as I get a good price and good quality. The other stuff is your problem,'” the author concludes. “The reality is that it’s actually everyone’s problem.”