I stood in a store last week staring at a $10 t-shirt and asked myself: How is this possible?
Cotton grown, harvested, processed. fabric woven, dyed, cut, sewn. Shipped thousands of miles. Sold through retail markup.
How does a garment that traveled the world and passed through dozens of hands cost less than two coffees?
The answer: Someone else is paying the real price.
Who Made Your $10 T-Shirt (And What They Were Paid)
I started digging...
Less than 2% of garment workers worldwide earn a livable wage.
Let that sink in. We're not talking about "fair" wages or "good" wages—we're talking about enough money to survive. That really hits hard.
Bangladesh is one of the world's largest garment manufacturing hubs. The minimum wage was raised in 2024 to $113 per month. According to a recent Earth Day report, this is still far below the $210-302 living wage needed.
Clean Clothes Campaign's 2018 research found that workers in H&M supplier factories in India earned about one-third of a living wage. In Bulgaria, workers at H&M's "gold supplier" factories earned less than 10% of what's needed for a decent life.
An undercover investigation by Channel 4 into Shein found something that took me by surprise. Workers were washing their hair during lunch breaks. HUH?
Not because they wanted to. But because that was the only time they had. Eighteen-hour days, one day off per month, and getting paid about 4 cents per garment.
When you're working so much you can't even shower at home, something is deeply broken.
Here's what gets me: research shows that H&M would only need to increase the cost of each t-shirt by 12 cents to pay workers a living wage.
Twelve cents. The cost of a gumball.
The math works. The business model doesn't.
The Environmental Cost: What It Takes to Make
A single cotton t-shirt requires 2700 liters of water to produce. That's enough drinking water for one person for 2.5 years!
The dyeing process dumps toxic chemicals and heavy metals directly into rivers. The fashion industry is responsible for 20% of global industrial water pollution.
And the worker who sewed it? Paid 4 cents per piece.
And the average lifespan? 7 wears before it's thrown away.
Seven.
How the Business Model Works
According to Fast Company's investigation, most of a garment's cost goes to fabric (about 70%). The remaining 30% covers transportation, duties, taxes, and worker wages.
When labor is this cheap, brands can afford to be wasteful. A t-shirt costs about $3 to manufacture, a dress about $10. Fast fashion companies produce tens of thousands of pieces per style—and assume a portion will never sell.
They throw them out. New, unworn clothing - landfilled because overproduction is cheaper than careful planning.
The system is designed for volume, not value. For constant newness, not longevity. For profit, not people.
The Bigger Picture: It's not about individual guilt.
This isn't about shaming anyone who buys fast fashion. Not everyone has the privilege of choosing expensive clothes. And these brands aren't evil - they're responding to the incentives the system created.
The point is to see the system for what it is.
When a t-shirt costs $10, someone else paid the difference. A garment worker who can't feed their family. A river that's now toxic. A community dealing with pollution they didn't create.
Understanding that doesn't mean you have to buy $100 organic cotton shirts. It means seeing what the price tag hides—and making different choices when you can.
What Changes This
Start here:
Buy less overall. The biggest impact you can have is reducing how much you consume.
Secondhand first. Thrift stores, consignment, resale platforms—these keep clothes in use without creating new demand.
Care for what you own. Proper washing, storage, and minor repairs extend a garment's life dramatically. (More on this in future posts.)
Support transparent brands when you can. Look for companies that disclose their supply chains and pay fair wages.
Demand policy change. Fair wage laws, environmental protections, supply chain transparency—these require systemic solutions, not just individual action.
The $10 t-shirt isn't cheap and it's probably always going to be there - there are thousands like it. But now when I look at it, I see something different. Not a bargain, but a bill that someone else is paying.
Understanding that is the first step toward demanding better.
Next week, Edie shows how this system's waste ends up in our bodies and why buying less still doesn't answer the question: where should our old clothes go?
Slow and steady,
Eddie 🐢🌿