How Much Does That $14 T-Shirt Really Cost?

If there’s one positive thing to emerge from the deadly Bangladesh building collapse in April, it’s a growing global awareness of the less-than-humane treatment endured by the South Asian nation’s garment workers. Those rock-bottom prices we’re accustomed to seeing don’t exactly come cheap. According to a 2011 report by O’Rourke Group Partners, a consulting firm based in New York, New Jersey, and Hong Kong, a generic $14 polo shirt sold in Canada and manufactured in Bangladesh costs a retailer only $5.67. To achieve such low numbers, workers receive just 12 cents per shirt, or 2 percent of the wholesale cost. It’s this stark inequity that accounts for Bangladesh’s booming garment industry, which is second only to China’s in terms of exports. The country’s 4 million garment workers, mostly women, are paid as little as $38 per month—a quarter of China’s current minimum wage—to sew clothing for brands and retailers in North America and Europe.
Source Ecouterre