Over the past decade, leading global apparel brands have increasingly adopted commitments to deliver living wages to the workers in their supply chains. Yet an investigation by researchers at the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute has found that that brands are failing to meet these promises. 

The researchers identified significant obstacles to the payment of living wages to workers in the global garment industry, including widespread inconsistency and confusion among corporations over the definition of a living wage, as well as the lack of a ‘roadmap’ for achieving their living wage commitments.

In addition to these problems with definitions and institutional design of living wage initiatives, the authors of this report found significant issues with the implementation of living wage commitments. They underscore corporations’ heavy dependence on industry-led social auditing initiatives to deliver on their living wage commitments, initiatives that are “widely known to be ineffective and open to abuse.”

The study also found a lack of robust enforcement and promotion of freedom of association rights, which are essential if workers are to report problems and complaints around wages (as well as other issues like forced labor and health and safety concerns).

The report recommends worker-driven social responsibility as a binding and enforceable model that would “help the industry to overcome the problems that currently limit progress towards the industry’s living wage commitments.”