Squeezed Dry Report

This report, from Clean Clothes Campaign and Public Eye, analyses pricing data from over two decades looking specifically at cotton t-shirts bought from Bangladesh. It shows that fashion brands today pay almost the same per item as they did 20 years ago. Adjusted for inflation, the sourcing price has actually fallen by as much as 30%. The sustained erosion of sourcing value in real terms undermines suppliers’ economic resilience, depresses wages and throws into question the credibility of industry claims on sustainability and a just transition. Today, many buyers still source a standard cotton T-shirt at around USD 2–3 per piece, with unit prices below USD 1 persisting in parts of the market.

The evidence shows that persistently low sourcing prices are not a market failure but a central organising principle of today’s garment industry, shaping sourcing geographies, buyer behaviour and structurally locking in poverty wages and precarious working conditions.