About the data
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.
Methodology
- The brand does not (claim to) pay a living wage to any of its workers: E
- The brand claims that between 1 and 25% of its supplier factories pay workers a living wage. This information is public: D
- The brand claims that it has started to contribute towards payment of a Living Wage, including paying significantly higher labour costs that cover a Living Wage into prices paid to all suppliers and evidence is public: D
- The brand claims that between 26 and 50% of its supplier factories pay workers a living wage. This is public information: C
- The brand claims that 50% or more of its supplier factories are paying a living wage to all their workers, explanation is given but the evidence is not public: C
- The brand claims that more than 50% of supplier factories in the brand’s supply chain pay workers a living wage. This information is public: B
- The company claims that 100% of supplier factories in the brand’s supply chain pay workers a living wage. This information is public: A