Bangladesh: Report finds fashion brands 'squeezing' suppliers with low prices, putting workers' rights at risk
"Fashion’s secret pricing: workers suffer as brands defy inflation for decades", 21 May 2026
A report published today by Public Eye and Clean Clothes Campaign...shows that many buyers source a standard cotton T-shirt at only around USD 2–3 per piece, with unit prices below USD 1 persisting in parts of the market....Taking global inflation into account, companies now buy a T-shirt for half the value it had 25 years ago.
...the...report shows that apparel brands have persistently shifted sourcing towards locations that offer the lowest prices...Today, an overwhelming 61% of cotton T-shirts imported into the EU are made in Bangladesh. The average EU import price for a cotton T-shirt in 2025 was just USD 2.67 (EUR 2.36). For T-shirts imported from Bangladesh, the price was...at USD 2.06 (EUR 1.83) in 2025.
...the report reveals that brands enter negotiations with fixed target prices. They know that if one factory refuses their conditions, they will find another factory willing to accept...As suppliers have little influence over material or energy costs, labor conditions are the first to suffer, with suppliers cutting spending to ensure safe workplaces or pushing workers into forced overtime at a poverty wage.
A closer look at the six highest volume buyers of cotton t-shirts from Bangladesh over the past five years, including Inditex (Zara), Primark and H&M, shows that none of them have increased sourcing prices to keep up with global inflation...
The report...proposes a fundamental revision of the garments pricing system...to a bottom-up and cost-covering calculation in which living wages and decent working conditions are not negotiable prerequisites....policy measures are needed to enable this shift.