How Much to the People Who Make Our Shoes Get Paid Per Hour?
Exploited Workers Human Cost Shoes. Do you know where your pair of shoes come from? Do you know its history and how it gets in-store? You might get surprised to learn that the signature shoes you bought for $200 were made by a shoemaker for less than $5 for labor. It is a huge claim for many advocates to raise the salary of underpaid workers who work for signature shoes for less than a dollar per hour.
Where do Labor Workers Come From?
Those huge global companies that specialize in running and sports shoes scout the labor force of the third world or developing countries where they can get cheap labor. In a research study, it has been found that Nike pays Haiti workers $0.30 an hour to make their shoes. The company was not satisfied with the factory and decided to move its manufacturing to China. This amount of $0.30 is not even enough to feed children and send them to school.
In Vietnam, a shoemaker who works 65 hours in a week is paid $10. They are also obliged to render overtime work without pay. In Indonesia, workers needed to strike to ask for the company to raise their salaries for 0.20/day. Today, most shoes are made in China where labor is incredibly cheap than any other countries in the world.
Exploited Workers Human Cost Shoes – Why the cheap labor
Large shoe companies prefer cheap labours, usually in Asian countries, because they have more workers. Most workers are aged 16-25. Although most of them should still be in school, they prefer to work and earn some money instead of going to school. Most of these workers are also locals who do not have the proper education and will work for a small salary, rather than nothing.
In Indonesia, a recent court order was issued, commanding Nike to settle $1M to Indonesia workers for their overtime pay. As of now, an average shoemaker earns $2.50 per day, even less compared to the daily livable wage in the country which $4.00 -$4.50.
Many Code of Labor advocates is still raising their voice, calling other shoe manufacturers to provide the rightful and lawful amount of salary to their shoe workers. They are also targeting other brands such as Adidas and Puma.
Exploited Workers Human Cost Shoes – Buying Local
Exploited Workers Human Cost Shoes. One of the solutions that advocates propose to lessen the problem of underpaid workers is to buy local products. They can be unbranded products made by local shoemakers but they are not too far when it comes to quality. Their price is even cheaper than a hundred dollar pair of shoe. By buying local, people will be able to keep their money around their locality while supporting their products and providing more jobs to the people.
It is also an important call to put local products on the map of shoe manufacturing. Moreover, it will also lessen the number of abused poor workers from those countries where large and signature shoes make their shoes.
References
The United Nations: States Vs International Laws
The True Cost of Low Prices is Exploited Workers
The True Cost of Low Prices is Exploited Workers – NYT
Main Image Source : Pixabay
Also See : Best Shoes For Running on Concrete
