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Hard-hitting CCC report names and shames brands for inaction on wages

3 April, 2014The Clean Clothes Campaign this week published a high quality report “Tailored Wages”, looking at the issue of living wages in the international clothing supply chain.

Research compiled over nine months was used to profile 50 leading European brands. The report could not award the “green” grade to any of the brands, meaning no company was found to be doing sufficient work to ensure that those workers making their clothes receive a wage large enough to live in dignity.

The four brands identified as having started innovative work toward making a living wage a reality were Inditex, Marks & Spencer, Switcher and Tchibo. 

Download the Tailored Wages report in full here.

Report coordinator Anna McMullen said:

A colour-coded assessment was developed to show the progress of each company towards a living wage. This assessment takes into account a variety of work areas which we feel are significant for achievement of the living wage goal: worker empowerment, commitment and practice, collaborative approach and strategy towards a living wage.

The CCC says:

"In a handful of cases we were pleased to notice some interesting work initiated by brands that was actually increasing real wages in workers' pockets.

However, overall, we were disappointed that progress is really still only at the trial stage, and work that is actually putting wages up is still rare. There are very few retailers who have tried to truly ingrain throughout their business work towards a living wage."