This metric is part of a Clean Clothes Campaign project to investigate wages in apparel supply chains. The project, Filling the Gap: Achieving Living Wages through improved transparency, is funded by the European Commission and comprises research, campaigning, capacity building and advocacy around an innovative Transparency Tool.

The Transparency Tool enables users to see at a glance which fashion brands and retailers have the largest gaps between their public commitments on wages, what workers are actually paid, and what they should be paid to be earning a Living Wage in their regional context.

The aim of the project is to empower workers and workers’ organisations to advocate for their rights and equip consumers with the knowledge/evidence that will enable them to make responsible and sustainable shopping decisions, and to hold brands accountable. The resulting increased transparency and traceability, along with the empowerment of workers, trade unions and CSOs, will lead to concrete improvements in these global supply chains.

The research was split into two parts: a survey of the brands and an on-the-ground survey of factory workers, initially in China, Indonesia, Croatia, India and Sri Lanka. This metric is derived from the brand survey portion of the research.

Labour Cost: Labour cost is the cost incurred by the employer in the employment of labour. This comprises remuneration for work performed, payments in respect of time paid for but not worked, bonuses and gratuities, the cost of food, drink and other payments in kind, cost of workers’ housing borne by employers, employers’ social security expenditures, cost to the employer for vocational training, welfare services and miscellaneous items, such as transport of workers, work clothes and recruitment, together with taxes regarded as labour cost. (Source: ILO)