Could you imagine living in a world where the best job you could get paid for is only a fraction of a typical U.S. minimum wage? This is a reality for third world countries that house and employ garment factory workers. Constantly in the U.S., you hear people complain about making minimum wage, or that in other states minimum wage is higher or lower. The wages that these workers make is a matter of cents, and I feel that that is something to complain about.

Who deserves to live like this? You cannot tell me that a tycoon of a company like H&M can only afford this extreme state of such a minimum wage, it makes no economic sense. Companies that are doing this is actually an act of big name brands dehumanizing these workers that reside in these third world countries. 

Now, this issue is something that I have picked up a vested interest in over the past three years. Having a home life where my mother is an activist and writer on these issues has fueled me with knowledge that has only made me more passionate and aware of fast fashion. Personally, I completed a town clothing drive last year to reduce clothing consumption and to promote textile recycling. All the proceeds from this event from the community went to "The Fashion Revolution," an organization that promotes transparency in the fashion industry. 

A question I get a lot is, "what is fast fashion?" For an issue that affects nearly everyone in the world, not a lot of people know about it. Fast fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed. (goodonyou.eco) Basically, we want this trendy wardrobe, and to be wearing what Kendall Jenner or Gigi Hadid is wearing, but we don't want to pay for the steep prices that these wealthy models are able to afford seamlessly. Fast fashion is a response to lower/middle-class consumers that want to look good for less. Retailers such as H&M, Forever21, Topshop, and Zara have given us this by quickly creating cheap mimics of popular trends, but are created by garment workers in third world countries. 

Shopping has also rapidly evolved from needing to, "wanting," in the past 20 years. The need to shop was primarily based on seasonal changes, or the need to replace clothes we had outgrew or damaged. Fashion is now suddenly in our malls, laced into our priorities, and even dictates our social status. Now we can afford fashion! But at what cost?

This is one of those large issues that people feel like they just want to throw their hands up in the air and say, "what can I even do?" Now there is no need to feel helpless because, in fact, there is a lot you can do in your everyday lives. 

What you can do TODAY...

• Shop Locally: Supporting small businesses can also help your community thrive, but can also reduce the consumption from fast fashion brands, such as H&M. 
• Buy Less: For my fashion-savvy friends out there, I know its scary! We feel like we need to shop because we are influenced by a huge consumer culture. Although you don't really need half the things you are buying on Black Friday or just on a casual mall trip. Think before you buy, or buy better. 
• Sustainable Brands: The biggest issue I find is that people are not willing to pay the price for sustainable fashion. It comes down to priorities. We put more money into other products that hold more value to us, such as the newest iPhone. What if your priority was seeing that workers didn't have to work 24 hour days to make your cute new dress from H&M? It's all how bad you're willing to work for it!
• Don't Throw Away Your Clothes!: There are so many more solutions so that your clothes don't end up in a landfill. You can donate clothing, try to mend your clothes, or try out textile recycling!
• Swapping, Second-Hand, and Renting: Clothing swaps don't have to be large scale, get together with your friends and try seeing if you guys have some clothing you want to swap. Or on a larger scale, try putting together an event in your community, church, or school where you all can have the opportunity to swap! Second-hand clothing shopping changed my life. Companies such as Goodwill, Savers, and the Salvation Army are for everyone! At these locations, you can find these same brands you love for $5-$20. Some companies also have the option to rent clothing, such as Rent the Runway! You could do this for day to day clothing, or bigger events like prom or an office party. 

You also have to think about whose lives you are affecting. Moa Kärnstrand and Tobias Andersson Åkerblom are Swedish investigative journalists that interviewed H&M workers in Myanmar, to get a better understanding of what they endure in these garment factories. 

"We found some girls who started working there at the age of 14 and we met many more girls who were below 18 and they worked from 7 or 8 in the morning until about 8 in the evening. In some weeks they worked from 7 in the morning until 10 in the evening." - Mr. Åkerblom (radionz.co.nz) 

H&M is nothing but aware of the public uproar that their poor manufacturing processes have caused. In response to these claims, they published where their factories are located overseas, were honest about more aspects of their production, and even created the H&M "Conscious Collection." They label these on their website under, "conscious," but what does this mean for workers? Kudos to H&M to their steps on working to be transparent and sustainable, but is still just greenwashing? We know where they are, and what they're doing, but this still does nothing to mend aspects of working conditions and poor wages. 

H&M should be paying workers what they deem to be living wage and request in the country that they work in. As seen in documentaries such as "China Blue," workers leave home for the best opportunities for them and their families. Is this really the best opportunity H&M can provide for their workers? They are not fooling anyone that this is all they can afford to pay for these workers who are responsible for their revenue. 

In Bangladesh, H&M's main garment factory location, there have been riots from workers who are demanding higher pay. Workers had been making 5,300 taka (63 US dollars) per month but were asking for a raise to 16,000 taka (189 US dollars) per month. Wages had not been raised since the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in 2013, which killed over 1,130 garment workers. As of September 2018, after a long battle with the Bangladeshi Government, workers received a raise to 8,000 taka (approximately 95 US dollars) a month, which is promised to be delivered by December 2018. Now, this is only 50% of their request. These are barely living wages for their country, and they deserve to be given at least what they deem to be right on their standards for the quantity of work they do. 

This work they do contributes to the U.S. economy, as well as to H&M's revenue. This is why I am calling on H&M to use their status and influence in Bangladesh, as well as their other factory locations overseas, to work with foreign governments to meet the desired wages of workers that they essentially employ. These workers deserve to be paid what they think to be right, and what is a very small financial figure compared to what the U.S. would consider a monthly pay standard.

Finally, my vision is very clear, what I want is H&M's transparency and a push for ethics to be applied to the country's living wage requests from garment factory workers. After all, don't you think since they make your loafers, we can throw a little more than a penny their way?