February 21, 2002

If you need something to be upset about, be upset about this. It is a company called Shin Won in Guatemala that makes clothes for the Gap.

The minimum wage for the garment sector in Guatemala is approximately a daily rate of Q$28.00 (about US$3.60). Excluding overtime and bonuses, workers receive about Q$425 every 15 days (about US$54.00). If bonuses, production incentive pay, and overtime pay are included, workers are supposed to receive about twice the amount quoted above, or roughly Q$1,800 a month (US$226.00). This is well below the established poverty line for Guatemala. The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of International Economic Affairs, stated in a 1999 report that the poverty line in Guatemala was about Q$2,109.00 a month (US$307.00).

I am adding a addendum per the comments. The point I was trying to make here was the exploitation of labor via capitalism. The Gap corporation can afford to pay their workers a living wage. They opt not to so as to provided lower costs to consumers and fill their own pockets. Go to behindthelabel.com and see the shacks where these people live on the wages they earn then tell me that what is happening is reasonable.

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