pay-period to pay-period, on a bare subsistence income—a small fraction of a living wage—without the savings to help them weather job loss.11 Moreover, in most of the countries to which brands’ sourcing strategies have caused the industry to shift, governments lack the resources and/or will to establish national unemployment insurance and other social safety nets.12 As a result, in country after country, theft of severance, combined with job loss, results in deprivation for families—homes lost, malnutrition, disruption of schooling for children, and extortionate debt.13 Just as the mandate for employers to pay severance is broadly established in the labor laws of major garment-exporting countries, so the requirement for supplier factories to comply with applicable labor laws, including those obligating payment of severance, is also a standard element of the codes of conduct adopted by every significant brand and retailer for the factories that make their products. All major brands claim, as corporate policy and a term of their supplier contracts, to require compliance with all applicable labor laws, including those that mandate payment of minimum wages and statutory benefits, among them, severance.16 Severance is a Legal Right of Workers That Brands Promise to Protect Brand Purchasing Practices Encourage Severance Theft Due, in significant part, to widespread lack of adequate unemployment insurance and other social safety nets, nearly all major garment-exporting countries have, as a feature of their labor laws, explicit mandates for private employers to provide workers who are dismissed without cause (i.e., through no fault of the worker) significant severance, based on length of service.14 The responsibility of governments to establish, and employers to comply with, mandates for severance, particularly where unemployment insurance is lacking, has been recognized by the International Labour Organization in its Convention and Recommendation on Termination of Employment (Convention 158, Recommendation 166).15 Despite their formal commitment to require payment of severance, brands’ actual purchasing practices are a major contributing cause of pervasive severance theft. The brands’ strategies increase the chances that when factories close down or otherwise lay off large numbers of workers, they will fail to pay legally due severance, either partially or completely. The mandate for employers to pay severance is broadly established Downward price pressure exerted by brands on suppliers is a key driving factor in the prevalence of labor rights abuses in the global apparel industry. Prices paid by major brands, at best, enable a factory owner to maintain a modest profit while meeting its current obligations to pay legally required minimum wages and benefits.40 Brand price pressure strongly incen- in the labor laws of major garment- exporting countries. WRC yz Fired, Then Robbed zy Page 6