Only 2% of the price of a piece of clothing sold in Australia is being paid to the workers who produced it, a new report from Oxfam has revealed.
The report, What She Makes, highlights a continuing cycle of poverty for those making clothing, as Australian fashion brands continue to report increases in revenue.
Deloitte Access Economics research showed that on average, just 4% of the price of a piece of clothing sold in Australia goes toward workers’ wages in garment factories across the globe.
The research, a first of its kind for Australia, revealed an even worse situation in Bangladesh, where only 2% of the price of an item of clothing sold in Australia goes to the wages of factory workers.
Oxfam Australia CEO Helen Szoke explained the damage this cycle of low wages and poverty has on those manufacturing clothing.
“The women making the clothes Australians love and wear are being denied decent lives by being paid poverty wages and are unable to afford even the basics no matter how hard they work.
“Women are working six-day weeks and as much overtime as they can, yet they are forced to live in slums, often separated from their children and families and going hungry as they struggle to make it to their next pay.”
Oxfam’s report argues that it is possible for big brands to pay living wages, with Deloitte estimating that if big companies passed the entire cost of paying living wages to all workers on to consumers, this would increase the price of a piece of clothing sold in Australia by 1%.
“That is just 10 cents extra for a $10 T-shirt.
“With the profits being made by the factory owners, wholesalers and retailers of the fashion industry, Oxfam says it is more than possible for the cost of paying living wages to be absorbed in supply chains.
“Fashion is big business in Australia – turning over $27 billion last year alone and growing at 4% a year. Yet the women who make our clothes remain entrenched in lives of poverty, paid as little as 39 cents an hour. It is time for this grossly unfair system to change," said Szoke.
Alongside the report, Oxfam has released a live company tracker to publicly monitor Australia’s leading fashion retailers - brands such as Kmart, Big W, Bonds, Cotton On and Just Jeans – and how they progress on paying living wages.