This report demonstrates how the business model of fashion brands and the structure of global garment supply chains create and sustain poverty wages for garment workers. We explore how persistently low wages continue to be the foundation of the industry despite policy commitments to pay a living wage. Elements of supply chains that impact wage levels are: the indirect employment relationship with supply chain workers; the global race to the bottom on labour costs which suppress national minimum wage increases; and the unequal power relationship between brands and suppliers which allow brands to dictate the terms of production, often at the expense of suppliers.

• English