The true price of fashion
In the UK, the average household spends £23.30 a week on clothing, culminating in a massive £38 billion spent in the UK on clothes every year.
In comparison, the national minimum wage of a garment worker in Bangladesh, is just £7 a month.
A sobering thought when the estimated minimum living wage in the country is £22 a month.
We are able to buy our clothes so cheaply because the manufacturing costs are so low; and this is because those making our £3 T-shirts, and £10 jeans, are earning less in a month than many of us might spend on a pair of socks.
A recent report by War on Want focuses on factories supplying Primark, Asda, and Tesco.
All three companies have agreed to a common code of conduct aimed to raise the standards inside their factories, yet the report states that the average wage paid out to workers is around £8 a month.
Many employees tell of 90-hour weeks, despite a commitment by these big name brands to enforce a weekly limit of 48 hours.
The result: even a well paid worker, earning £16 a month, is looking at a wage of 5p an hour, in an 80 hour week.
The national minimum wage of a garment worker in Bangladesh, is just £7 a month.Angela Wipperman
Companies using low cost factories often defend their conduct by pointing to their audits, where working conditions are investigated.
These audits, however, are viewed with a sceptical eye by many organisations.
Factory owners claim that audits are easy to bluff, by effectively putting on a show for the duration of the investigation.
Furthermore, the low cost of production is little incentive for big business to find fault in their factories.
There are some companies attempting to combat these appalling circumstances, such as Adili.com and People Tree, which aim to provide clothing from sustainable and ethical sources.
The problem, however, is that such companies cannot compete with the prices of low cost clothing stores.
Whilst there remains an imbalance in production costs, the more expensive, albeit ethical clothes will not be those in our shopping baskets.
Until the working standards of all employees in the developing world are raised to the same as we expect in our own working lives, and consumers except responsibility for where and what they buy, factory workers in developing countries will continue to be exploited for that 'Asda price'.
What You Think
Students are forever counting the pennies, and low cost clothing, like that found in Primark, MKOne, and New Look, can mean fashion that doesn't cost a hefty percentage of the student loan.
But how do students combine a keen sense of ethics with affordable style?
Kate Prodger, 19, Natural Sciences, Cambridge Univeristy
Beanzine: How much do you spend on clothes, on average, every month?
Kate Prodger: £120
BZ: What is your favourite clothing store?
KP: Selfridges.
BZ: How do you feel about shopping in stores that exploit cheap labour in the developing world?
KP: A lot of the time I wouldn't know if shops employed third world labour. If I did, I wouldn't boycott the shops, but it would make me think differently.
Elaine Chew, Biochemistry, Manchester University
BZ: How much do you spend on clothes, on average, every month?
Elaine Chew: £30
BZ: What is your favourite clothing store?
EC: Vintage stores.
BZ: How do you feel about shopping in stores that exploit cheap labour in the developing world?
EC: I think you feel bad about it, but it doesn't affect where you shop.
Jess Cuthbert, Employment
BZ: How much do you spend on clothes, on average, every month?
Jess Cuthbert: £300.
BZ: What is your favourite clothing store?
JC: Asos.com
BZ: How do you feel about shopping in stores that exploit cheap labour in the developing world?
JC: I feel awful, but it doesn't stop me shopping where I normally shop.
Mel McDonnel, Biomidical Sciences, Southampton University
BZ: How much do you spend on clothes, on average, every month?
Mel McDonnel: £30.
BZ: What is your favourite clothing store?
MM: Accessorise
BZ: How do you feel about shopping in stores that exploit cheap labour in the developing world?
MM: I don't really think about it. If I had the choice between more ethical clothes and the ones I normally buy, I would definitely go for the more ethical ones, but I don't know enough about it.
