H&M commits to living wage for textile workers

Dutch high street fashion chain H&M has committed to paying textile workers in its supply chain the living wage by 2018.

At a recent supply chain conference in Berlin, Helena Helmersson, global head of sustainability at H&M, said that its strategic suppliers should have pay structures in place to pay a fair living wage by 2018, which will impact around 850,000 textile workers. “We believe that the wage development in production countries, which is often driven by governments, is taking too long. H&M wants to take further action and encourage the whole industry to follow. With size comes responsibility and we have the ability to contribute to a positive change.”

H&M is encouraging other brands to take the same approach.?? As a consequence of our new wage ambition, the Code of Conduct will be updated to reflect this new target.

Bengt Johansson, CSR ambassador at Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs commented: "H&M's initiative to create a wage policy for the suppliers in their production countries is an important step to resolve one of the major problems in the textile and clothing industry; how to find models for decisions on fair living wages and stable conditions in the labour market."