Non-profit, The Fair Labor Association (FLA), has released a first-of-its-kind report detailing worker compensation in 124 footwear and apparel factories across 21 countries.
Entitled, Toward Fair Compensation in Global Supply Chains: Factory Pay Assessments in 21 Countries, the report charts workers’ total earnings in 2015, and then compares those numbers with relevant local compensation benchmarks, such as the legal minimum wage, World Bank poverty levels, and cost-of-living figures, in order to “provide a snapshot of the purchasing power of workers’ current compensation…”
While most countries pay close to the legal minimum, in places like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Mexico, earning the minimum wage actually puts workers below the World Bank poverty line.
Pay violations were also found in more than 20 percent of the facilities, particularly in China, where 69% of the 39 factories evaluated (totaling more than 34,000 workers) were not providing one or more of the five types of social insurance — pension, unemployment, medical, work accident, and / or maternity.
The full report is available for download at the Fair Labor Association website.
