"Despite a positive move H&M still falls short of meaningful transparency", May 2019

H&M has announced positive new steps toward supply chain transparency that should be followed by other brands... It cannot be denied that this is an important step... it would be great if more brands followed this example. However... it still lacks vital information for consumers to make the “informed choices” H&M is aiming at...

This is the level of transparency that we expect in the area of wages as an immediate follow-up to H&M’s recent announcement of increased supply chain disclosure:

• Information on the living wage pilot projects carried out as part of H&M’s commitment, including concrete factory information, wage level and development through time at each factory, and lessons learned.
• Definition of a “fair living wage” as well as information on the proposed methodology to calculate a “fair wage” and to make sure that it is actually paid.
• Based on the above definition, minimum acceptable wage levels – in concrete terms – for all H&M’s production countries.
• Detailed information about efforts made within existing living wage initiatives such as ACT.
• A cost breakdown of the pricing structure, specifying how labour costs are calculated at present and how that is different from before H&M’s living wage commitment was made...

In addition, H&M should regularly publish up-to-date information on wages paid at each supplier factory, so that progress toward the specific wage increase targets can actually be measured.