Only four percent of major fashion brands are making progress on living wages

Out of 110 major fashion and footwear brands, 32 percent have publicly committed to a living wage for garment workers, yet only 4 percent are making tangible progress. This is according to the seventh edition of the Fashion Checker, the monitor from labour rights organisation Clean Clothes Campaign.

This slow progress poses a direct risk to the sector, as the European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) will recognise an adequate living wage as a human right from 2029. Of the 30 brands surveyed that will fall under this legislation, only 3 percent have a public action plan for a living wage and 13 percent lack a publicly available complaints mechanism.

Meanwhile, the wage gap in the workplace remains extremely large. 96 percent of brands do not pay a single worker a living wage, and the average score has risen by just 3 percent since 2019. Research between 2023 and 2025 shows that garment workers in countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan earn over 70 percent less than a living wage. Although transparency about production locations increased to 41 percent, still only 3 percent of brands publish the actual wage levels in their factories.

“It is clear that brands are not living up to their promises on living wages,” writes Fashion Checker coordinator Aileen Robinson on LinkedIn.

To address this shortfall, the organisation is calling on brands to actively support the wage demands of local trade unions. It cites the demand for a 250 dollar minimum wage in Cambodia and the resumed negotiations in Bangladesh. The monitor's latest brand profiles now also include data on due diligence and have been compiled in collaboration with the data network Wikirate.