"Nike Says Its Factory Workers Make Nearly Double the Minimum Wage. In Indonesia, Workers Say, “It’s Not True.”", 30 January 2026

...Nike Inc. has stuck by a key claim about its overseas suppliers: They pay the average factory worker about twice the local minimum wage...

But the experiences of workers in Indonesia...illustrate how misleading the claim can be for vast portions of its supply chain.

When a reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive visited the country and interviewed roughly 100 workers from more than 10 factories that supply Nike, none said they made anywhere near twice the minimum wage.

“Bullshit,” a union official said, in English...

One worker from a factory in West Java asked a reporter where on the company’s website Nike makes the wage claim.

“No, no, no,” he said...“It’s not true.”

“Nike is not paying double the minimum wage,” said a union official in Central Java, a lower-wage area where Nike’s contract factories have been expanding. “The fact is the opposite. Nike is seeking cheaper workers.”

Last year, a ProPublica reporter visited Cambodia and found that only 1% of the 3,720 workers at a former Nike supplier earned at least 1.9 times the minimum wage...

A reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive subsequently spent seven days in Indonesia...

All the workers interviewed said they made around minimum wage, which is as little as $150 a month in some parts of the country.

Sandra Cho, who oversees human rights for Nike, didn’t dispute that some factory workers — including in Indonesia and Cambodia — make less than 1.9 times the minimum wage, describing the figure as a “global average.”

“Some countries will be less than 1.9, some countries will be higher,” she said.

In Vietnam...two workers told The Oregonian/OregonLive they made minimum wage — about $204 a month — but two said they made twice as much...

Nike pushed back when asked whether it’s misleading for its disclosures to highlight the figure of 1.9 times the minimum wage.

“A company trying to mislead would not voluntarily publish wage data, openly acknowledge its journey toward improvement, or subject itself to third-party scrutiny,” Nike said in a written statement.

But the transparency that Nike provides is limited.

The company’s global pay figure is based on data for 700,000 of its roughly 1.2 million workers in its nearly 700 contract factories. In other words, nearly half a million workers are omitted from the math...

(A Nike spokesperson said the wages of the roughly 500,000 workers not included in the calculation are audited to ensure they make at least the minimum wage.)...

The company’s main focus with wages is whether they’re high enough to cover basic expenses and a little more, Cho said, a concept known as a living wage. Some countries have minimum wages that meet that threshold, some don’t. Nike has said 66% of workers at its suppliers, at least those for whom it has data, earn a living wage. That’s up from 53% in 2021.

But living-wage calculations can vary widely, and they don’t always match the perceptions of people on the ground. Workers interviewed near Jakarta, where the local minimum pay rate is ostensibly more than a living wage, said it’s not enough to live on..

...workers’ accounts of earning minimum wage or a little bit more are consistent with 63 paystubs from three Indonesian factories, which The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica obtained from a labor group. At two factories, workers averaged 1.1 times the minimum wage. At the other factory, workers averaged 1.4 times the minimum...

Presented with detailed questions about pay practices, Nike said looking at pay relative to the minimum in isolation “misses the broader picture of real wage growth and economic development” in countries where Nike sources its goods...

The company said what matters more than what people are paid relative to the minimum wage is whether they make enough to cover basic expenses. Some regions of Indonesia, including Jakarta, have minimum wages higher than local living wage estimates by the WageIndicator Foundation, an independent Dutch nonprofit...

But an income that meets the living wage benchmark on paper doesn’t always match what workers say they need, at least in Indonesia.

Standing in an overgrown lot outside Jakarta, 30 workers broke into laughter when asked if they got paid enough to cover their basic expenses...