The Cost of a Five-Dollar Dress

Social responsibility has after the Rana Plaza collapse become an integral part of many supply chain management courses across the globe. However, workers’ rights in textile supply chains, or a lack thereof, are actually an old story, maybe as old as modern textile supply chains. This is evidenced by an article from 1933, titled The Cost of a Five-Dollar Dress. The article argues: “If your clothes’ budget has been cut down and you buy bargain dresses, it is only fair you should know who pays part of your bill—the women who made the dress.” It seems that, by moving from one location to another, the social problem of the textile industry has acted like a nomad. Apart from the location – then New York City, now Dhaka – not much seems to have changed within the last century. Still today, the real cost of a five-dollar dress is paid not in dollars or euros, but by the workers upstream in the supply chain with their safety and health condition.