For example in 2010, garment workers in Bangladesh demanded a 200 percent increase in their wages, which meant $71 a month. Keep in mind that people working in those factories are making their country’s minimum wage, which is likely not a living wage. After all when you can place an order of fifty thousand or a hundred thousand outfits from a factory, you can sell it at a low price and still make a profit. The author spells out why chain stores such as H&M can sell clothes at such low prices – volume. I was never a regular H&M shopper because of the slipshod construction of the clothes – stripes that usually don’t line up, seams that looked like they would will come apart in a few washings, cheap fabric, and so on.)
(OK, I confess that that’s not that much of a sacrifice. As as a result I don’t think I’ll ever buy anything else from H&M. Now after reading Elizabeth Cline’s eye-opening book Overdressed (Portfolio/Penguin), I know why that skirt was so cheap.
Despite that thought, I’m embarrassed to admit, I couldn’t resist the price and I bought it. I really couldn’t answer the question – though lurking in the back of my mind was the thought that labor costs must be really, really low. I remember asking myself: How was it possible to make and sell a long skirt – even with an elastic waist and lightweight fabric – for only five dollars? I knew something was wrong last year when I saw the sale price of a floor-length black cotton skirt at H&M: five dollars.
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