However, the speed and low price of fashion can come at a cost. For consumers, it may result in poor quality fabrics and badly-made clothes that fall apart after being worn several times. Then there is a much heavier cost- one that involves the people who actually make the clothes. Many big multinational companies do not manufacture their own goods, but sign contracts with manufacturers to produce them. These manufacturers then source and engage factories in developing countries for tasks like sewing and cutting. Because poverty is high, these factories can exploit the workers and pay them wages that are as low as 23 cents an hour.
A government investigation into factories manufacturing zara clothes revealed that it cost Inditex(the company that owns zara) about $1.14 to manufacture a pair of jeans selling at $126. This $1.14 doesn't go straight to the worker who makes.