The examples below illustrate the wide gap between what garment workers bring home and what their families need to live dignified lives. Workers should be earning a living wage that allows their families to meet their basic needs. Minimum wage rates vary as they are set by each provincial government, however, they do not meet this living wage. The very structure of the garment industry encourages the creation of sweatshops. Retailers sit at the top of the apparel pyramid, placing orders with brand-name manufacturers, who in turn use sewing contractors to assemble the garments.
Contractors recruit, hire and pay the workers, who occupy the bottom level of the pyramid.
In many countries, competitive bidding by these contractors for work drives contract prices down so low that they cannot pay minimum wages or overtime to their workers. In fact, in today's garment industry, very little competitive bidding takes place. Retailers have acquired enormous power to determine the price of clothing. During the past decade retailing has experienced a series of major mergers, which has led to a considerable consolidation of their buying power, especially among discounters. This consolidated buying power vastly increases retailers' ability to put more pressure on the manufacturers in terms of price and speed.