4th October 2018
US retailer shares drop after Amazon minimum wage rise
But no retailer explains why Amazon's increasing warehouse wages to local going rate is bad for real retailers
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27th February 2017
Computer programs and flash PR won’t eliminate wage abuses by themselves
Is the British government's “name and shame” campaign High Street retailers concentrating too much on headline-grabbing mistakes? “Minimum wage abuses will not go unpunished” announced Britain’s Business Minister Margot James...
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24th February 2017
Myanmar sets up new minimum wage committee
The government in Myanmar has set up a new committee on minimum wages, local media reported on February 23. The committee, which will include "financial experts, ministries and representatives from...
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12th April 2016
Free labour gives brands more headaches than forced labour
Is forced labour really apparel buyers top challenge? A recent report from Transparency International thought it was. I disagree. Voluntary labour causes buyers—and shoppers—far more headaches. Forced labour: lots of new...
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19th February 2015
“Most garment workers in UK onshoring hub paid half minimum wage”: study
The majority of garment workers in Britain's East Midlands - focus of much new UK apparel manufacturing - are paid less than half the country's minimum wage, an academic study...
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9th February 2015
2014’s Next Big Things that weren’t.3, Part 4: China’s “new normal” and competitiveness
China's rulers are fond of talking about the "New Normal," and the idea does have some downsides. Some of those downsides might impede the garment industry's competitiveness. But they haven't...
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31st January 2015
Bangladesh factory owners fight to keep foreign investors out “because they pay too much”
The vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) insisted on January 30 that Bangladesh should keep its ban on unrestricted foreign investment because foreigners "had paid excess wages...
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2nd January 2015
ILO believes Cambodian wage rise needs “2.4% to 4%” hike in fob prices
The 28% Cambodian minimum pay rise that came into effect on January 1 will increase factories' wage bills by 18.7% and needs a 2.4% to 4% increase in fob prices...
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31st December 2014
Burma misses self-imposed 2014 minimum wage deadline for negotiations
Though the Burmese Ministry of Labour promised in late November that a national "minimum wage would be in place by the end of the year [2014]", it admitted on December...
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22nd December 2014
Chinese minimum wage rises slow sharply in 2014
A third of Chinese regions failed to increase minimum wages in 2014, and those that did increased wages at the lowest rate for several years, the China Labour Bulletin reported...
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15th November 2014
“Militant” Cambodian clothing unions accept 28% wage rise
Most Cambodian unions admitted by mid November that their members were not prepared to support calls for strikes or demonstrations against a 28% rise in minimum wage announced on November...
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13th November 2014
Cambodian minimum wage rise: workers buy it, foreign advisors don’t
For most of the past year, industrial relations in the Cambodian garment business have been conducted with more than a touch of hysteria. So it's been astonishing to compare the...
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