Nearly all major global fashion brands assessed in a new labour rights report have failed to demonstrate that garment workers in their supply chains receive a living wage, highlighting a persistent gap between corporate sustainability commitments and actual wages paid to clothing factory employees.
The seventh edition of the Fashion Checker monitoring project, released by international labour rights organisation Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) on September 23, found that 96% of 110 clothing brands assessed could not demonstrate living wage payments at any of their supplier factories.
The assessment covered major international fashion companies, including Adidas, Chanel, Nike, H&M, Uniqlo and Zara, raising concerns about wage transparency, purchasing practices and corporate accountability across global apparel supply chains.
Although 32% of the brands have publicly committed to achieving living wages, only 4% reported tangible progress, while just 3% disclosed wage levels at individual supplier facilities, according to the report.
The findings come as garment-producing countries, including Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey, face mounting pressure to improve workers’ earnings amid rising living costs and growing international scrutiny of labour conditions.
Bangladesh, one of the world’s largest garment-exporting countries, emerged as a major concern in the assessment.
Worker surveys conducted by organisations within the Clean Clothes Campaign network between 2023 and 2025 found that garment workers interviewed in Bangladesh earned an average of 73% less than the living wage benchmark used in the research.
Comparable wage shortfalls were recorded in Pakistan at 74%, Turkey at 66% and Serbia at 63%, demonstrating the scale of the challenge across several important apparel-producing markets.
The figures reflect workers surveyed by the campaign’s partner organisations rather than nationally representative wage averages.
A living wage is generally understood as compensation sufficient to cover workers’ basic needs and those of their families, including food, housing, healthcare, education and other essential expenses, with some allowance for unexpected costs.
Unlike statutory minimum wages, which are determined through national legal and wage-setting processes, living wage benchmarks seek to reflect the actual cost of maintaining a decent standard of living.
In Bangladesh, the statutory monthly minimum wage for garment workers was raised to Tk 12,500 in December 2023. However, labour rights organisations have repeatedly argued that the amount remains inadequate to meet workers’ basic household expenses.
The wage gap has renewed debate over the responsibility of international fashion brands, particularly as Bangladesh’s export-oriented apparel industry remains heavily dependent on orders from European and North American retailers.
Clean Clothes Campaign has urged brands to support renewed minimum wage negotiations in Bangladesh and use their purchasing relationships to help suppliers improve workers’ earnings.
Among the 110 brands assessed, only four reported that at least some workers in their supply chains were receiving living wages.
Norwegian outdoor clothing manufacturer Devold reported that 50% of its supplier factories paid living wages, the highest proportion disclosed by any brand in the assessment.
Puma, Zeeman and Schijvens reported that between 1% and 25% of their supplier factories paid living wages.
Other major companies, including Adidas, H&M, Chanel and Zara-owner Inditex, did not provide evidence recognised by Fashion Checker of living wage payments in their supplier networks.
The absence of verified public evidence does not necessarily establish that no individual worker at those suppliers receives a living wage. Rather, it highlights the limited information available to independently assess companies’ wage commitments.
Brands including Adidas, Uniqlo, H&M, Benetton and Levi’s received the lowest possible living wage scores under the campaign’s assessment methodology.
The report also identified a substantial gap between corporate pledges and measurable implementation. Only a small minority of companies had published time-bound action plans outlining how they intended to achieve living wages across their supply chains.
Fashion Checker Coordinator Aileen Robinson said the findings demonstrated that companies were making insufficient progress despite years of public commitments.
“Any wage below living wage is a poverty wage,” Robinson said in the organisation’s September statement.
She said the project’s living wage scores had improved by only three percentage points since monitoring began in 2019, indicating limited progress across the industry.
Swedish fashion retailer H&M challenged the report’s portrayal of its wage practices, saying its suppliers in many production countries paid average gross wages above statutory minimum wage levels.
H&M Group Global Press Officer Pernille Skanvig Schønau told ESG Dive that the company publishes supplier wage information and participates in industry initiatives aimed at strengthening collective bargaining and improving workers’ compensation.
The company pointed to its involvement in ACT Cambodia, an initiative involving fashion brands and trade unions, and a binding agreement with IndustriALL Global Union intended to support collectively negotiated wages and better working conditions.
“We believe the Fashion Checker does not provide an accurate picture of our work,” Schønau said.
H&M’s publicly reported gross average monthly wage for workers at its Bangladeshi suppliers was approximately Tk 18,000, according to figures discussed in the ESG Dive report.
However, Clean Clothes Campaign transparency coordinator Paul Roeland said a living wage benchmark of around Tk 30,000 per month illustrated the difference between reported average earnings and the amount needed to cover essential living expenses.
Roeland also questioned whether gross wage figures included overtime payments, arguing that living wages should be achievable within normal working hours rather than depending on additional shifts.
The distinction is particularly significant in Bangladesh, where overtime earnings can form an important part of garment workers’ monthly income.
H&M maintains that its wage initiatives and collective bargaining efforts represent meaningful steps towards improving supplier compensation, while the campaign argues that such programmes have yet to deliver sufficient improvements across the wider industry.
The findings also raise questions about the preparedness of major apparel companies for the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which is scheduled to apply from July 26, 2029.
Under the revised framework, the requirements generally cover EU companies with more than 5,000 employees and annual worldwide net turnover exceeding €1.5 billion, as well as non-EU companies generating more than €1.5 billion in EU turnover.
The legislation requires companies within its scope to identify and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts in their operations and supply chains, including issues affecting workers’ livelihoods.
Clean Clothes Campaign estimates that 30 of the 110 brands assessed are likely to fall within the directive’s scope.
However, only around 3% of those companies have published a living wage action plan, while 13% lack a publicly available grievance mechanism for workers, according to the campaign.
Across the full sample, one-quarter of brands do not provide a publicly accessible mechanism through which workers can report workplace concerns, including potential wage violations.
The findings suggest that companies may need to strengthen their wage monitoring, supplier engagement and human rights due diligence systems before the legislation becomes applicable.
Supply Chain Transparency Improves, Wage Disclosure Remains Limited
Although progress on living wages has been slow, the report identified improvements in the disclosure of supplier factory information.
About 41% of the brands assessed now publish some supply chain facility data, compared with 28% in 2020.
However, only 3% disclose wage levels at supplier factories, limiting the ability of workers, investors, consumers and labour rights organisations to assess whether wage commitments are being fulfilled.
Clean Clothes Campaign argues that identifying supplier factories is only an initial step towards meaningful accountability. Companies must also disclose reliable wage information and demonstrate how their purchasing practices contribute to improved worker compensation.
The organisation has called on fashion brands to support trade union demands, participate in national wage negotiations and incorporate living wage contributions into purchasing agreements.
The issue has also drawn attention to pricing practices in global apparel sourcing.
A May 2026 investigation by Clean Clothes Campaign and Swiss advocacy organisation Public Eye found that purchasing prices for basic garments, including cotton T-shirts, had declined substantially in real terms over the past two decades, increasing financial pressure on suppliers.
For garment-producing countries such as Bangladesh, the findings reinforce concerns that improvements in factory safety, environmental performance and sustainability reporting must be accompanied by progress on workers’ earnings.
The report concludes that voluntary commitments alone have delivered limited results, with campaigners urging global fashion companies to demonstrate measurable improvements in wages rather than relying primarily on corporate policies and public pledges.