California expands workplace protections for garment workers

For decades, California has had the highest concentration of garment industry workers in the country. Among low-wage industries, the garment industry has arguably the highest rate of wage and hour violations.

Recent legislative findings have concluded existing law contains several ambiguities that have led to systemic underpayment of garment workers, who are traditionally paid on a piece-rate basis and subjected to unsafe “sweatshop” working conditions. COVID-19 has only amplified those issues since many garment workers have performed factory work in violation of Safer at Home orders and health and safety workplace mandates.

A new landmark bill takes a number of steps to attempt to address the problems within the garment manufacturing industry.

SB 62

On September 27, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 62. The law prohibits piece-rate compensation for garment workers and requires manufacturers that contract with another party to make garments to jointly share responsibility for workers’ wages.

Under the Garment Worker Protection Act (enacted in 1999), garment workers can file claims for unpaid wages with the labor commissioner against the contractor that hired them as well as the manufacturers whose garments they produced. Several manufacturers, however, have claimed they don’t fall under the definition of “garment manufacturer” by adding layers of contracting between themselves and the workers who are making the garments. By doing so, they have avoided liability for unpaid wage claims.

Garment industry supply chain