Workers push for Fair Wages in Asian Garment Industry

Workers in Asia, the United States, United Kingdom and throughout Europe are mobilizing to secure a living wage for garment workers in Asia. The Asia Floor Wage is focused on making sure that the more than 100 million mostly women workers in the Asian garment industry receive adequate wages for what they produce.

Launched on Oct. 7, World Day for Decent Work, the Asia Floor Wage is pushing for a minimum wage equivalent to $475 for a month with a 48-hour workweek. That’s twice what Indonesian laborers get. It’s three times the minimum rate of pay in Sri Lanka and more than six times the wage in Bangladesh.

The best protection for workers is a minimum wage that crosses borders, according to a new report by Labor Behind the Label, a British workers’ rights group. In an interview on the Marketplace radio show on American Public Media, Anna McMullen, the report’s author, said:

There’s a race to the bottom between different countries to set lower minimum wages in order to attract foreign business. So the minimum wages that are set are well below what is necessary for a decent quality of life.

Mark Brenner, director of Labor Notes, said having a continent-wide minimum wage would prevent big U.S. and Western European companies from dodging the issue of how much people who make their products are paid. He said a single floor wage could force Western companies to take responsibility. They’ll know what a living wage is, he said, and they’ll come under pressure to abide by the same rules.

The working conditions in the factories also must be improved, says Institute of Labor Education and Research (PILER). As Zulfiqar Shah, joint director of PILER, said:

A fair wage is a human right. Without adequate income one cannot fully realize basic rights.

In the United States, Jobs with Justice is teaming up with the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and the AFL-CIO to help educate our members and allies about the need for a minimum wage and better working conditions for workers who make the garments we buy in stores like Wal-Mart.