The state of pay behind the UK high street. It's over a decade since consumers, workers and campaigners began calling on fashion brands to make sure the workers who produce the clothes they sell are paid a living wage. For two years in a row, Labour Behind the Label has interrogated the biggest players in the fashion industry, to see what progress has been made.  Based on evidence from partners in-country, written submissions from 23 companies, and meetings with 11 companies, it is the most comprehensive study of the case for and progress towards a living wage for the labour behind the labels.

Download the 2007 update (20 pages, pdf 750Kb)

Download the 2007 profiles (48 pages, pdf 850 Kb)

Foreword

Last year, Labour Behind the Label and our partners interrogated the biggest fashion brands and retailers on the high street to find out what they were doing to improve wages for the workers in their supply chains.  For the most part, the responses we got back were a combination of procrastination, stalling, and fairly transparent excuses.  Only a few companies admitted that there was a problem, and even fewer that they had a responsibility to fix it.  

We have returned to each of the companies profiled, one year later, giving them the chance to update us on the progress they had made.  A number requested face-to-face meetings, so in July and August we met with 11 high street companies to talk over the written submissions they had sent us.  As we will see in this update, very little has changed for workers over the past twelve months, although there are signs that some in the industry may now be starting to at least consider taking more significant action.

In this update, we focus on living wages.  A major issue for workers, it is also a key sticking point in ethical trade, and the most stark injustice of the fashion industry.  While executives and spokesmodels live in excess on seven-figure salaries, the garment workers who generate their profits remain – systematically, across the world – mired in a poverty trap.

Garment workers are not making unreasonable demands: they are asking for decent work and a living wage that will give them a fighting chance to escape poverty.  It is not enough for UK retailers to provide poor jobs for people in developing countries: they must be decent jobs based on conditions of freedom, equality, security and dignity that will make a real difference to people’s livelihoods.¹

In complex global supply chains, often several parties - including suppliers, buyers and governments - contribute to the poor working conditions experienced by workers.  Of these, it is the fashion brands and retailers who take the most profit and have the most power in the supply chain, and who therefore bear the primary responsibility for working conditions.

Binding regulation, set down and enforced by governments in the UK and in other countries where garments are made, should create the framework in which fashion brands work together to eliminate violations of workers’ rights.  Yet at present, such regulation is weak and poorly enforced; nowhere is this more evident than in the quest to secure a living wage.