Fashion companies have become better at documenting their labor commitments, but evidence that those promises are improving conditions for garment workers remains scarce.
Nearly nine in 10 companies assessed in Baptist World Aid Australia‘s 2026 Ethical Fashion Report could not demonstrate that workers at any of their final-stage manufacturing facilities received a living wage. Across the companies surveyed, an average of just 3.1 percent of final-stage facilities paid all workers a living wage.
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Baptist World Aid Australia examined 138 companies representing 543 fashion and footwear brands for its latest Ethical Fashion Report, released Tuesday. Their average score was 31.5 out of 100, barely above the 31.3 recorded in 2024.
The gap was particularly pronounced between corporate governance and implementation. Companies averaged 68 percent in policies and governance but just 30 percent in supplier relationships and human rights monitoring. Worker empowerment, which encompasses living wages, collective bargaining, grievance mechanisms and rights training, was the lowest-scoring category, averaging 3.3 out of 25 possible points.
The underwear brand Mighty Good Basics was an outlier, earning 94 out of 100 overall and 23 of 25 points for worker empowerment. Even among higher-scoring companies, that category proved difficult: AS Colour, a blank apparel brand, earned 12 of 25 points despite a 67-point overall score. The gap was wider at H&M Group and Shein , which received seven and one worker-empowerment points, respectively.
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