Authored by Anna Kallschmidt
Some international clothing brands such as H&M, Continental Clothing and Mini Rodini have committed to paying workers a living wage. While the companies plan to expand their mission, critics argue that there are many barriers preventing organizations from implementing livable wages for supplier factories’ employees in developing countries. These obstacles include increasing the cost of products for customers, decreasing rates of employment, and increasing the replacement of workers with automation.
This dilemma is especially salient in the Indian garment export sector, where inequalities are so drastic that some workers have reported a month’s wages could not purchase a garment they created. Even so, the garment factor has proven vital to India’s economic growth. While research on living wages has grown in the United Kingdom, United States, and New Zealand, developing countries are drastically under researched. GLOW researcher Dr. Bimal Arora has proposed a study to examine the perspectives on living wages and the capabilities for them in this sector. Continue reading Can a Living Wage Improve Production?