H & M promise fair living wage to garment workers by 2018.

This article originally appeared in the H & M Blog.

“It has always been our vision that all textile workers should be able to live on their wage. We are focusing on our strategic suppliers to start with. Our goal is that all of them should have improved pay structures for fair living wages in place by 2018. This will affect around 850,000 textile workers.

Everyone who’s employed by the fashion industry should earn enough to live on – whoever they are and wherever they work. Unfortunately, this is not the case in many of the countries that we rely on for garment production.

Change is happening, but we think it needs to happen faster. That’s why we’ve created a pioneering roadmap to a fair living wage. It’s our plan for a global change in purchasing and supplier practices, workers’ rights and government responsibility. We’re going further than any fashion company has ever gone, and we’re encouraging the rest of our industry to follow our lead.

What is a ‘fair living wage’?

A fair living wage should at the very least cover the worker and their family’s basic needs and a discretionary income. This wage should be reviewed annually and negotiated with democratically elected trade unions.”