California has the largest apparel industry in the U.S., an industry
that includes more than 46,000 garment workers and over 4,000
manufacturers and contractors. The California apparel industry is also
notorious for its sweatshop working conditions, workers paid by the
piece—for as little as three cents per garment—in dirty, dangerous
workspaces. By taking advantage of loopholes in California law, brands
have been able to avoid responsibility for workers’ wages by contracting
for the lowest prices possible to manufacturers, many of whom hire
subcontracting factories for even smaller sums, leaving 62% of garment
makers to work by the piece for an average of $5.58 per hour, according
to the Garment Worker Center.
Each year, minimum-wage violations by California employers sap the
state’s workforce of nearly $2 billion in earnings, worsening conditions
for the financially vulnerable and dragging down the state’s overall
economic health, according to nonprofit think tank the Economic Policy
Institute.
California Senate Bill 62 (SB62), also known as the Garment Worker Protection Act,
addresses wage theft in California’s garment industry by ending the
piece rate system, making brands jointly liable with suppliers for
ensuring a California minimum wage—$14 per hour at present—for garment
makers and closing other loopholes in the law to address transparency
and accountability in the supply chain, from the top down.
