World鈥檚 lowest-paid workers
Print Edition
Ethiopian garment factory workers are now, on average, the lowest paid in any major garment-producing company worldwide, a report says.
The study, by the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, comes as Ethiopia, one of Africa鈥檚 fastest-growing economies, pursues a bold experiment by inviting the global garment industry to set up shop in its mushrooming industrial parks.
鈥淭he government鈥檚 eagerness to attract foreign investment led it to promote the lowest base wage in any garment-producing country 鈥 now set at the equivalent of US$26 a month,鈥 said the authors of the report, Paul M. Barrett and Dorothee Baumann-Pauly.
In comparison, Chinese garment workers earn US$340 a month, those in Kenya earn US$207 and those in Bangladesh earn US$95.
Drawn by the newly built industrial parks and a range of financial incentives, manufacturers for some of the world鈥檚 best-known brands 鈥 among them H&M, Gap and PVH 鈥 employ tens of thousands of Ethiopian workers in a sector the government predicts will one day have billions of dollars in sales.
The report is based on a visit earlier this year to the Hawassa Industrial Park that opened in June 2017 in southern Ethiopia and currently employs 25,000 people.
The report says most young Ethiopian workers are hardly able to get by to the end of the month and are not able to support family members.
The minimum monthly living wage in Ethiopia is about US$110), said Ayele Gelan, a research economist at the Kuwait Institute.
鈥淕iven relatively little training, restive employees have protested by stopping work or quitting altogether. Productivity in the Hawassa factories typically is low, while worker disillusionment and attrition are high,鈥 the report said.
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