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Garment Industry
Contents
History > Composition
of the Garment Industry > Dressmaking
> Dressmaking in the 1870s > Women's
Fashions in the 1890s > Department Stores and Changing Fashion
> Garment Industry in NYC Today
> Garment Labeling > Sweatshops
> Triangle Shirtwaist Factory > Sewing
Machine
Garment Industry in NYC Today
In 1950, the garment industry made up almost 1/3
of all manufacturing employment and 1/10 of total employment in
NYC. Today, as a result of the shift from a production and distribution-based
economy to a service-based economy, the garment industry is 8%
of all manufacturing and 2% of total city employment. This is
a drop of almost 75%. It is estimated that there are 33,043 sewing
workers employed in about 2,035 factories in NYC today, with approximately
180 located in Manhattan's Chinatown. Over time, the women's outerwear
industry has become a larger proportion of the city industry,
now accounting for 70% of the total garment business in NYC vs.
30% of the nationwide industry. Dressmaking accounts for 45.8%
of the women's outerwear industry in NYC (27.2% nationwide). While
most garments made here are for women, school uniforms and military
uniforms are made in NYC as well.
What keeps garment production in New York City?
New York City is home to the suppliers of the garment industry-textile
wholesalers and button manufacturers. Because of the city's importance
as a center for the arts, entertainment, media, and advertising,
it has become the world center for fashion and design. There are
also logistical reasons why NYC is central to the women's apparel
industry despite the increased competition with overseas markets.
It may take up to a year to turn around garments being manufactured
in China; in Mexico, it may take a few months. Women's and teenage
fashion changes often and NYC has the advantage with fast turn-around
time and quality control. Shops often manufacture smaller runs
of items that were made overseas and need to be restocked quickly.
New York contractors can turn around orders in about three weeks.
This is very important to the ever-changing women's fashion industry.
Who works in the garment industry?
It is estimated that 75% of all garment workers
are immigrants, many unskilled with poor knowledge of English.
According to 1990 Census figures, over half (55%) of the NYC apparel
industry employment is of operators, fabricators and laborers-54%
were not US citizens and only 7.5% were born in the continental
US. Of these workers, 80% are divided between Asian and Hispanic.
In contrast, 54% of executive, administrative, and managerial
employees are white and native born. "Ethnic network hiring"
is very common in the NYC garment industry. Contractors, who hired
the vast majority of the industry workers, hire almost exclusively
from certain immigrant groups. These networks build through word
of mouth, family and social connections. For example, Chinese
hire other Chinese and Koreans often hire Hispanics.
Of all employees in the NYC Apparel Labor force, 53% have less than
a high school degree. When looking only at the operators, fabricators
and laborers, the number who did not have a high school degree rises
to 70%.
Size of the shops
Of the city's approximately 3,320 apparel manufacturing establishments,
most are contracting shops, which is where most of the garment workers
are employed. Close to 2/3 of all apparel contracting shops in the
city employ fewer than 20 people:
1 to 9 46%
10-19 18.2%
20-49 23.5%
50+ 12.4%
Because of changes in the retail marketplace, including consolidation,
more apparel is sold by specialty-store chains, large mail-order
catalogs, and discount stores, than by the small, independent store
or traditional department store. Many large retailers enter the
business on their own by directly contracting to make their own
private label merchandise (however, mostly made overseas).
Wages and compliance with laws
Earnings of apparel industry workers have declined
from about 75% of the NYC average in 1975 to just 57% in 1996. Production
is seasonal-employment peaks in March of each year, declining in
the summer (July and August), picking up again in early winter (September
to December), falling off again in January, and accelerating in
February. With different seasons for different garments, workers
often must switch shops to stay employed. Based on 1996 data, average
hourly wages in NYC ($9.98) are higher than national ($7.96), but
that view is skewed. The high average in NYC is largely due to the
higher incomes of the skilled workers who work in the garment center's
sample rooms in midtown. Workers in garment factories (contracting
shops) make $2-$4 an hour, while seamstresses and tailors who work
in the Garment District showrooms may make $8-$9 or more. Garment
workers may work 10-12 hours a day, six days a week. Their work
is set-up assembly line style and most get piece-rate pay-the most
efficient seamstresses may get an hourly wage. Piece-rates vary,
but may run 5¢ for sewing on a button, 10¢ for a zipper,
8-25¢ for hanging and bagging a garment. This amounts to workers
getting paid as little as $2-4 per hour.
Is it possible to make clothes at a profit here if workers are paid
minimum wage?
Some experts say no because of the problems arising from the contractor's
cash flow. Manufacturers don't always pay up front, making it hard
for factories to pay their workers on time. Plus, there is doubt
as to whether the fees paid by manufacturers are enough to cover
the workers pay at minimum wage.
Following is an example of where consumers' money goes when purchasing
a pair of jeans. A worker can sew 3.3 pairs of pants per hour and
based on a pair that costs $14.96, the hourly wage for a non-union
worker is $3.31. Here is the breakdown:
| Designer's share |
35% ($5.20) |
| Retailer's share |
30% ($4.46) |
| Textiles, materials, cutting |
23% (3.50) |
| Available to pay workers |
7% ($.98) |
| Factory overhead costs |
5% ($.82) |
(Source: UNITE)
One problem of sweatshops is the lack of compliance with laws regarding
hours and wages. A 1997 survey by the US Department of Labor found
that only 3% of surveyed firms in NYC were in compliance with all
wage and hour laws. Note that all of these shops were registered
with the NYS Department of Labor (an estimated 10-20% of shops are
unregistered). See the table below:
Compliance of Apparel Firms with Federal Wage and Hour Laws
| Compliance with: |
Percent of surveyed firms: |
| All wage and hour laws |
3% |
| Min. wage, overtime, record
keeping |
18% |
| Min. wage and overtime |
37% |
| Fair Labor Standards Act
posting |
49% |
| Record keeping |
30% |
| Minimum wage |
80% |
| Overtime |
46% |
(Source: US DOL, 1997 NYC Garment Contractor
Survey)
As many as 80% of registered shops pay wages under the table, at
least to a certain degree-most use a combination of actual paychecks
and cash. Profit margins are very tight for contracting shops because
of the economic pressure from above (retailers, manufacturers) to
keep costs low. Some say that the retailers are largely to blame
for this because of their demands for low prices.
The predominance of immigrant workers also adds to the problem in
compliance with wage and hour laws. If a worker is undocumented,
he or she might want to be paid in cash, off the books. Being paid
this way also allows workers to avoid payroll deductions as they
are more concerned with the cash flow now, rather than benefits
later.
For further reading, see: Peter Liebhold and Harry R. Rubenstein,
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops,
1820-Present (Los Angeles, 1999); Daniel Soyer, Sweatshops in
the New York Garment Industry: The Jewish Era, ca. 1880 - ca. 1920
(Resident Fellow, The Sweatshop Project, August 1997); Miriam
Ching Yoon Louie, Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers
Take on the Global Factory (Cambridge, MA: South End Press,
2001).
See also: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory;
The Labor Movement and the Garment Industry.
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