Labour costs: China is nearly six times more expensive than Ethiopia
13/11/2014
In statistics quoted by the China Leather Industry Association, Mr Mangione said the cost per hour of one footwear factory worker in the African country was $0.36, a figure that he said takes all costs into consideration.
A table he drew up put Bangladesh next, with each worker costing $0.71 per hour, followed by Cambodia ($0.85), India ($0.85), Vietnam ($1.14), Nicaragua ($1.27), Thailand ($1.34), Indonesia ($1.60), the Dominican Republic ($1.88), China ($2.09) and El Salvador ($3.05).
By way of contrast, he said the cost for a footwear factory worker was $18.68 per hour in Italy and $25.66 per hour in Japan.
These figures suggest that it’s now nearly six times more expensive to hire a footwear factory worker in China than it is in Ethiopia.
Earlier this year, Peter Mangione told leatherbiz that recent investments from China in footwear factories in Ethiopia are important developments, but said what had convinced him that large footwear manufacturing groups are serious about using Ethiopia as a low-cost centre of manufacture was an announcement of Chinese investment in a major infrastructure project to provide a rail link between the capital of landlocked Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, and the port of Djibouti, 750 kilometres away.
Share this story:
