Fair Wear publishes new living wage report

FWF has released Labour Minute Costing, a new report that provides tools for creating a wage floor in garment factories.

The report, designed for clothing brands, factories, trade unions and others interested in living wages, addresses three related questions:

• How to calculate the total cost of bringing a factory’s lowest-paid workers up to any given living wage benchmark – e.g. creating a wage ‘floor’ in a factory.
• How to incorporate the increase in wages into normal product costing systems, in a transparent and verifiable manner.
• How to ensure that increased costs can be shared fairly among all of a factory’s customers, without violating EU competition law.

The complexity of apparel supply chains, where a single factory can supply dozens of different brands, makes wage improvements difficult to implement.  The Labour Minute Costing methodology continues FWF’s focus on pragmatic, real-world solutions to the many challenges associated with improving wages for garment workers. It is designed to be implemented following consultation with workers, and through negotiations with relevant trade unions.

The report was written by by Doug Miller, Emeritus Professor of Worker Rights in Fashion at the University of Northumbria, and Klaus Hohenegger, director of Sourc!ng Solut!ons GmbH. It is based in on pilot work conducted by FWF in Macedonia, with the support of CNV Internationaal.

FWF’s Living Wage Portal contains a wide range of additional resources for brands, factories and trade unions on pragmatic steps that can be taken towards living wage implementation.