this was a quick gesture at this concept, and indeed the breakdown of price and cost varies by retailer - but following a handful of articles such as this one from Maclean's,
According to a 2011 report by the consulting firm O’Rourke Group Partners, a generic $14 polo shirt sold in Canada and made in Bangladesh actually costs a retailer only $5.67. To get prices that low, workers see just 12 cents a shirt, or two per cent of the wholesale cost. That’s one of the lowest rates in the world—about half of what a worker in a Chinese factory might make—and a major reason for the explosion of Bangladesh’s garment industry, worth $19 billion last year, up from $380 million in 1985. The country’s 5,400 factories employ four million people, mostly women, who cut and stitch shirts and pants that make up 80 per cent of the country’s total exports.
For that $14 shirt, the factory owners can expect to earn 58 cents, almost five times a worker’s wage. Agents who help retailers find factories to make their wares also get a cut, and it costs about $1 per shirt to cover shipping and duties. Fabric and trimmings make up the largest costs—65 per cent of the wholesale price.
and to repeat from another reblog chain:
Patagonia, which trumpets its Fair Trade and Fair Pay for Labor policies, states on its website that ~1/3 of its garment factories pay a living wage or more, 1/3 pay between 50% and 80% of a living wage, and 1/3 pay less than 50% of a living wage.
Patagonia has one supplier in Bangladesh. It acknowledges that this supplier “has made meaningful progress towards living wages”. Patagonia advertises its support for raising the minimum wage in Bangladesh to 23,000 taka per month ($196 USD). The current Global Living Wage Coalition estimate for the living wage in urban Bangladesh is 27,900 taka per month ($238 USD). The current minimum wage in Bangladesh is just 12,500 taka per month ($133 USD).
A single hooded puffer jacket from Patagonia retails for $289 USD.
The sewer is the person I mention here because the sewer is - with a fair degree of certainty - the most exploited person in the chain. And of course putting their pay for a garment on its price tag is a shorthand that cannot encapsulate the complexity of the global supply chain but
it puts a bound on the matter, yknow? is the $70 shirt actually more pay for the worker than the $12 shirt? is the company paying lip service to fair trade or are they paying their workers?
this was a post dashed off in twenty seconds as a tongue-in-cheek prod about companies marketing clothes as "sustainable" or "fair trade" while still paying pennies, not a manifesto, but some of these questions do have answers
jbbartram-illu
turnnoffyourmind
germansingergirl
areudirty
yousharknotpass
jacobvanloon
izzy806
andulkaphoto
