Overtime - Haiti Observer Blog

Employers in the Haitian garment manufacturing industry are exploiting their workers as a dirt-cheap form of labor, as well as forcing them to work under unsafe conditions in violation of laws governing the industry. Garment workers are drastically underpaid, on average 32% less than minimum wage requirements. The standard pay rate is $4.54 per eight-hour shift. If they make their quota for the day they receive $6.81. The quotas are set are unrealistically high, the better for employers to avoid paying an extra $2.27 per day.

Henri-Claude Muller-Poitevien, who heads the government of Haiti's Garment Sector Commission (GSC), has an explanation why garment workers can't meet the daily quota. He says they are less able, and need practice to work faster and more competently.

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