This week’s blog forms the second part of our “Living Wage, Living Planet” series. In part one of the series, we focused on the link between a living wage and a living planet: if garment workers were paid more, then they could work less, thus contributing to a greener, safer world through reduced carbon emissions via their jobs in garment factories. This shift to higher pay and fewer hours would also hopefully coincide with brands transitioning on their own towards more sustainable garment manufacturing practices.
In part two, we get into the details and reveal just how much more garment workers in Bangladesh would need to be paid just to have a minimally decent life. Part of living a decent life would mean they could also stop working excess hours at their factories, which is currently the only choice they have if they want to earn just enough to eat, pay rent, and buy life’s other essentials.
The open space between workers’ current pay and what our calculations suggest they ought to be paid is very wide, but we don’t think it’s an impossible gap to close. All of us living on this planet have a part to play, and different stakeholders have different roles. Garment workers have done their part by sharing their data with us. It’s our turn to take the next step.
As always, you can send any questions you have for MFO, SANEM, the workers or about the project to questions@workerdiaries.org.
