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The study reveals that in the average supply chain of Australian garment retailers, just 4% of the price of a piece of clothing is estimated to make it back to the pockets of workers. In countries like Bangladesh, where wages are extremely low, the situation is even direr. An average of just 2% of the price we pay in Australia goes towards factory wages. But Oxfam argues that paying living wages — wages that allow the women who make our clothes to live a decent life — is possible.

Women aged 18–25 make up 80% of the factory workers in the global garment industry. Their long hours of hard work have helped to create booming economies and large export industries for countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and China. But this booming economic growth has not benefited everyone. While revenues continue to grow for many big Australian companies like Cotton On and Kmart, and while factory owners and suppliers to the garment industry across Asia continue to collect profits, the same cannot be said for garment workers.

It does not have to be this way. It is time for this unfair system to change. Brands need to pay living wages to the women who make our clothes — wages that will allow these women to lift themselves out of a life of poverty. Brands have the power — and the responsibility — to make this change.

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The research reveals not only harrowing personal stories of individuals, but a systemic failure to ensure payment of wages that are enough for people to afford even the basics of a decent life. There have been interviewed more than 470 workers across Bangladesh and Vietnam for this study. All of them were part of Australian clothing supply chains at the time of interview, employed in garment factories that supply at least one iconic Australian clothing brand. The investigation also included more than 130 interviews with factory owners, managers, union leaders and focus groups to present a clear picture of the way the fashion industry works in Australian garment supply chains.

The picture drawn is disturbing. Not only are almost all the workers we interviewed being paid well below a living wage; they are also struggling to feed themselves and their families, sometimes going hungry. They fall into spiraling debt, live in poor conditions and cannot afford the healthcare or education they and their families need.

This investigation reveals that the problems created by poverty wages in the garment industry are not isolated incidents. They cannot be fixed by action in just one factory or by addressing the hardships of just one worker. Only a strong, system-wide commitment from Australian brands with the power to change their practices will turn this around.

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The study offers the most comprehensive investigation yet into the conditions of work for women and girls in India’s home-based garment sector. Approximately 85 percent of the home-based garment workers documented for the report exclusively work in supply chains for the export of apparel to major brands in the United States and European Union. These Indian workers consist almost entirely of women and girls from historically oppressed ethnic communities who earn approximately $0.15 per hour. The primary aim of the report is to provide insights into the lives of these workers in the hope that governments, companies, and nonprofits will be able to better coordinate on solutions to address the exploitation documented.

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Change starts with transparency. This publication seeks to promote a greater understanding of the realities of child labour by presenting interviews with children who were found working in Asia’s garment sector.

It first gives definitions of child labour, an overview of Asia’s booming garment industry and then examines child labour in Asia. The study also discusses the role of brands and introduces the Fair Wear Foundation trainings on age verification as well as the Fair Wear Foundation policy on child labour.

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The global apparel industry is characterized by complex global supply chains operated by large multinational brands and retailers, like Gap and Walmart, in which production is outsourced to hundreds of factories in developing nations to take advantage of low wages and weak labor law enforcement. This model of outsourced, globalized production has enabled multinational brands and retailers to not only increase profits by lowering labor costs, but also to insulate themselves from legal liability for working conditions in the factories making their products.

 With the failure of the traditional, corporate-led initiatives to address labor violations, new models have emerged to hold brands and retailers accountable for working conditions in their supply chains. Enforceable brand agreements (EBAs) differ significantly from corporate-led models because they seek to address the features of the apparel supply chain that are at the root of poor working conditions and labor rights violations: namely, the absence of binding and enforceable commitments, lack of transparency, sidelining of workers and their elected trade union representatives, and how the brands’ purchasing practices contribute to labor rights violations.

 This paper explores the successes and challenges of three examples — in Indonesia, Honduras, and Bangladesh — of EBAs in the global apparel industry, examining the context in which each was developed and how they address the deficiencies in the traditional CSR approach. It then outlines a four-part analytic framework, or essential elements, for identifying what a worker-centered, worker-driven model for advancing workers’ rights in the apparel supply chain should include. Finally, it lays out a road map for transforming the global apparel industry through greater uptake of worker-led initiatives and other actions necessary to strengthen worker rights in the global apparel industry.

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