Wage Theft
Garment workers, who already receive subsistence wages, are often paid even less than they are owed when their employers fail to obey minimum wage, overtime, and severance laws. This was particularly pernicious during the Covid-19 pandemic.
By targeting areas where violations are particularly widespread, and by responding to worker complaints at individual factories, we have successfully pressed many employers around the world to start obeying wage laws, and we have helped workers win over $150 million of legally owed back pay.
Severance Pay
Workers are also often cheated out of their legally owed severance pay, typically when owners shutter factories and abscond overnight. Because many countries where garments are made lack unemployment insurance, workers and their families depend on receiving severance pay when factories close.
Since 2010, the WRC and our partners have successfully pressed major brands like Nike, adidas, Gap, H&M, Disney, Victoria's Secret, PVH, and Walmart to provide legally owed severance to tens of thousands of former employees of shuttered factories around the world.
$1.5 Million Wage Theft from Guatemalan Workers Who Made Lucky Brand Owned by Authentic and Shein