India and Bangladesh, are the leading apparel exporting destination with women working in large numbers across thousands of factories in both nations.
Despite land and buyers’ compliance monitoring remaining on the lower end in these countries, time to time reports come out indicating the countries’ gender wage gap (difference between men and women earnings as a percentage of male earnings) and now this has been mentioned in the latest sustainability report from H&M as well.
“Professor Raymond Robertson led a gender pay gap study using data from 1,227 of our suppliers covering all our production countries. The research found that wage gaps vary greatly across countries and factories, are highest in Bangladesh and India, and are generally more significant as workers are promoted into higher positions,” reads the report.
It further adds that the initial findings also show that wage management systems contributed to decreasing gender pay disparities for earners in factories. The brand is engaging internal and external stakeholders in defining goals and next steps for the next phase of the project.
Another report, titled, “Gender pay gaps in global supply chains: findings from workplaces in Bangladesh, Colombia, Morocco, Thailand and Turkey” also underlines that Bangladesh’s RMG factories have a gender pay gap of up to 30 per cent in favour of men for base wages. The study was conducted by a US-based research organization called Anker Research Institute (ARI). ARI conducted its study in three in Bangladeshi RMG units with between 1,500 and 4,000 workers per unit.
A previous report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) also underlined that female workers, despite their larger representation in local garment factories, are paid lower than their male counterparts. It was around 22 per cent less than the men for Bangladesh.
