In April 2020, a minimum wage increase went into effect in the Indian state of Karnataka, one of the country's largest centers of garment manufacturing. Garment factory owners producing for leading apparel brands refused to pay. As a result, 400,000 garment workers across over a thousand factories were cheated of the legal minimum wage – amounting to nearly $60 million in back wages owed.

By March 2022, after 22 months of refusing to do so, the major Karnataka garment manufacturers had finally committed to pay the legal minimum wage, along with all arrears owed, to their workers. As of July 2022, the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) has confirmed an estimated $23.1 million in payments by 21 manufacturers to nearly 200,000 current employees, with 16 of the manufacturers having paid in full.

Workers report that the impact of not receiving this increase was concrete and significant: reduced access to food staples, lost housing, lost schooling for their children.

According to the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), this was the worst wage theft they had ever seen in the global garment industry and it resulted in a reduction, in real terms, in workers’ already precarious standard of living.

Brands were aware of the theft and had allowed it to continue for nearly two years. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre compiled brand responses here.

During February 2022, in a major breakthrough in the efforts of Garment and Textile Workers’ Union in Karnataka, combined with growing pressure on brands from activists around the world, Shahi Exports, the biggest garment manufacturer in India, agreed to pay their workers what they are owed. (For more context, check out coverage by the Guardian and VICE News.) After this first victory, we kept up the pressure on brands and soon more suppliers committed to pay!