Introduction

The fashion industry has always struggled to talk about the living wage in an open and consistent way. Two years ago, brands and retailers said it wasn't a problem, or that if it was, it was somebody else's. Last year they agreed that they ought to do something, but hadn't quite got round to it yet. This year they have begun to dabble, but most say that it will be years before they have anything workable.

Download the 2008 update (50 pages, pdf 330Kb)

Download the 2007 update (20 pages, pdf 750Kb) and profiles (48 pages, pdf 850 Kb)

Download the 2006 report  (84 pages, pdf 1.7Mb)

Behind all these excuses lie two simple, appalling facts. The people who make our clothes – whoever and wherever they are – live in poverty, usually earning just half of what they need to meet their basic needs and those of their families. And, ten years since the bulk of the industry signed up to the principle that all workers should earn living wages, nothing has been done to make that principle a reality.

We accept that not all the responsibility for this situation lies with the fashion industry. Garment workers live in poverty because they are part of a global industry in an unequal global economy. They live in poverty because their governments don't stand up to powerful commercial interests when setting paltry minimum wage figures, because as women and migrants they face tremendous cultural disempowerment and discrimination, because they are not – and are prevented from becoming – members of trade unions. And yes, they live in poverty because they are taken advantage of by factory owners whose only concern is often to maximise their own profit.

But in the midst of all of this, garment workers are the linchpins of an industry worth £36 billion annually in the UK alone (to put that figure in perspective, if all that money just from the UK were distributed among the entire global garment workforce, it would mean around £1000 each). It is an industry that keeps tens of millions of us in the latest fashion, fills acres of pages in women's magazines, provides tens of thousands of us with work here in the UK, and tops up the fuel tank on at least one cigar-chomping billionaire's private jet every week. Fashion brands can't solve all the problems faced by garment workers, but they owe them more than the paltry wages they currently earn.

This is the third time that Labour Behind the Label has surveyed the state of pay behind the British fashion scene, and in three years we have seen definite progress, not only in rhetoric but in the beginnings of tangible work on the ground. The establishment of a multi-stakeholder working group at the Ethical Trading Initiative is one clear milestone (although a year in, its pilot projects have still not begun). But the pace is still glacial. It is hard to imagine retail businesses moving so slowly if the problem were with the quality or design of their clothes.

As economic storm clouds gather, retailers should redouble their efforts, not slacken the pace: those same storm clouds bring with them major food price inflation for garment workers, who deserve better from the retailers whose profits they sustain. And as disposable income is squeezed and we become a bit more choosy about where we spend our money, consumers should expect more, too.