“The European Floor Wage Benchmark”, 16 March 2021

Buyers should pay the full price of a garment. This includes a wage that workers can live on.

... Though the right to a living wage is a human right, workers’ wages are far below a living wage and – in Central, East and South-East Europe – even fall considerably below the EU poverty line.

A living wage is a central enabling human right and vital for any real development…

... Despite [voluntary initiatives] workers in the garment industry of the Global South, and specifically in the ‘Global East’, receive just a small fraction of a living wage…

A fundamental feature of the Asia Floor Wage, as well as the Europe Floor Wage, is its gender sensitivity ... In most production countries in Europe, garment workers – usually women – are often the breadwinners of the family or single mothers ... This income poverty leads women to work more overtime, engage in second jobs or search for the cheapest food, all of which result in absolute time poverty.

Measured against the EU’s poverty line (60% of the average or median salary in a country), minimum wages are, on average, equivalent to two thirds of this threshold…

Given the balance of power in national minimum wage setting mechanisms and the balance of power between national governments and the European Commission and International Monetary Fund, it is not surprising that governments accept the dire poverty of their minimum wage earners…

… The global fast fashion business model creates the need for a policy that fights the relocation competition between countries/regions around wages – and yet does not make diverse countries equal…