Fair Pay & Ethical Work

It’s easy to say that we pay everyone fairly, but what is fair pay? Well, we here at Tweedy Clothing can’t talk for any other organisation but we can say what fair pay means to us!

You may have heard of the awful story of the garment workers at Rana Plaza in Bangladesh when it collapsed back in 2013. Some of them were earning as little as $10 per month! (If you do not know about this I highly recommend watching ‘The True Cost’ documentary). Even with the low living costs in Bangladesh surely $10 a month is not fair pay!

After a lot of research, we found that In India, as of May 2020. The minimum wage for tailoring work and garments industry is as follows – This takes into account the living cost of India.

Unskilled
225.00 Total Per day in Rupee
5850.00 Total per Month in Rupee
62.52 Monthly value in pounds sterling at the rate 93.56 rupee to 1 pound

Semi-Skilled
237.00 Total Per day in Rupee
6162.00 Total per Month in Rupee
65.86 Monthly value in pounds sterling at the rate 93.56 rupee to 1 pound

Skilled
249.00 Total Per day in Rupee
6474.00 Total per Month in Rupee
69.19 Monthly value in pounds sterling at the rate 93.56 rupee to 1 pound

Highly Skilled
299.00 Total Per day in Rupee
7774.00 Total per Month in Rupee
83.09 Monthly value in pounds sterling at the rate 93.56 rupee to 1 pound

Workers work 48 hours per week split over 6 days

Josh & I feel that even the highest amount of 83 pounds a month is simply not enough, even with the lower living costs in India – you can get a very nice Thali and a room on the beach for 500 rupee, the equivalent of about 5.50, if you go to the right place, and that is tourist prices! So we asked Raj what he was paying his workers. Knowing what a fair man Raj is we were not surprised to find out he pays his staff over 3 x the above wage. Each staff member works 48 hours over 6 days, with 1 hour for lunch, 2 x tea breaks and 1 month’s paid holiday Plus all big religious holidays off. This means we know that every person who makes your clothing is being paid an incredibly good wage, and they are each being appreciated for the skills they bring. This is one of the many reasons we love Raj and have chosen him to be our main business partner.

We are in discussions with Raj regarding women’s work and pay. At the moment Raj employs two women on a part time basis, we are looking at increasing this number and when we do, we will be ensuring the women are paid equally to the men of the same skill level.

Please see the following article for more info on India’s wage:
https://paycheck.in/salary/minimumwages/21339-rajasthan/21582-tailoring-work-garments-industry