Public Eye shines a spotlight on T-shirt production in Bangladesh with a new report.Image: Shutterstock
A T-shirt for under 10 francs from a fashion retailer: A new report shows how international fashion companies are driving down prices when producing clothing.
May 21, 2026, 3:07 amMay 21, 2026, 3:07 am
The prices for a T-shirt at major fashion retailers in Switzerland are between 9 and 17 francs. A cotton T-shirt is produced for two to three dollars per piece – sometimes even less. That comes from one new research from Public Eye. For the proceeds from the sale of a single T-shirt, brands can buy a whole kilo of it from the factory.
Many brands explain falling prices with increasing productivity. But when it comes to simple products like T-shirts, technical progress is limited – the majority of the work remains manual work. The NGO therefore draws a devastating conclusion regarding the promises of sustainability and fairer working conditions. This is what the report is about:
The hunt for the cheapest needle
Although the global economy has grown and groceries, visits to the hairdresser and restaurant bills have become more expensive due to inflation, a different picture emerges in the fashion industry: the purchase prices for basic clothing have hardly increased – taking inflation into account, clothing has even become cheaper over the last 25 years.
According to the report, fashion companies such as Zara and H&M now buy T-shirts at around half the price they did over 20 years ago. At the same time, the market has grown strongly: the value of global T-shirt exports has increased from around 15.5 billion US dollars since 2001 to 56.8 billion US dollars in 2024 – that is almost fourfold.
The added value is not passed on upwards, but rather passed down the supply chain. It works like this: To ensure a permanently low price level, companies look for the cheapest production locations. An example of this is Turkey, which, as a country with comparatively high production costs, has lost market share over time.
Most T-shirts for the European market now come from Bangladesh. This development has increased since 2000, when textile exports from Bangladesh increased sharply and almost doubled. This happened primarily at the expense of other producing countries such as China or Turkey.
The power game of price negotiations
According to the research, there is a clear power imbalance between buyers and suppliers: large clients set fixed target prices, suppliers have little room for maneuver. In some cases, prices are intended to be pushed down again after production has been completed.
The companies are taking advantage of the extremely competitive local market situation in Bangladesh. Many factories primarily produce interchangeable standard products that could easily be produced elsewhere. For fear of losing orders, many factories in Bangladesh accept orders from which they earn little or nothing.
A production manager from Bangladesh describes the processes as follows: Nobody wants to lose an order, especially with large order quantities. This is why several factories often compete for an order at the same time. As a result, the price continues to fall. A brand pays around ten dollars per kilogram of T-shirts. A middleman passes on the order for around $8. Procurement offices then negotiated with factories for five or six dollars – sometimes even less.
The profit used to be around 10 taka (0.07-0.08 CHF) per T-shirt, but today people are satisfied with it being around 3 taka (0.02 CHF) per piece, says the production manager.
The data behind the report
Public Eye evaluated a data set spanning more than two decades and conducted interviews with suppliers and intermediaries. However, the extent to which prices fluctuate between individual brands or orders remains largely hidden. Hardly any fashion company discloses the prices at which purchases are made or how these change over time.
The wages are not enough to live on
To cut costs, many factories are cutting wages and working conditions. Many workers have to work overtime regularly – often more than ten additional hours per week. The statutory working hours are 8 hours per day and 48 hours per week with a 6-day week. Overtime is permitted up to 2 hours per day, but must be paid at twice the wage.
Nevertheless, in most cases the low wages are not enough to live on. The legal minimum wage is around 12,500 taka per month (around 90 to 95 francs). According to Public Eye, a living wage would have to be at least four times higher.
A recent study by the University of Nottingham According to the report, 78 percent of garment workers in Bangladesh cannot adequately feed their families. Around one in eight textile workers is in debt because their wages are often not enough to cover basic living costs such as food and rent.
32 percent receive less than the legal minimum wage. The study also shows evidence of child labor, particularly in outsourced subcontracting factories. These are smaller supplier companies outside of the large factories.
How much t-shirts actually cost
Some fashion brands pay slightly higher purchase prices than others. Fast Retailing (Uniqlo) averages around 18 francs per kilogram. Inditex (Zara) and Primark also show slight price increases, but these remain below general inflation. Nevertheless, all brands are within a very low price range.
Without higher prices, the system will remain as it is. The report cites a medium-term target value of around $30 per kilogram. This price level is intended to enable more sustainable and fair procurement, in particular through living wages, better working conditions as well as the use of sustainable materials and more stable production structures.
The report sees the problem not only with individual companies, but rather that price pressure arises in the structures of the industry. «There are many hidden costs throughout our production. Corruption is everywhere,” says a trade manager. The connection between business and politics in the textile industry is striking: according to estimates, around ten percent of Bangladeshi MPs own clothing factories themselves.
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