Garment workers in Cambodia just received a pay raise. From the start of 2020, the minimum wage will rise to $190 per month. While any extra income is welcomed, much of the gains will be taken by landlords who have often hiked rents when wages have increased in the past.
The clothes manufacturing sector is the country’s largest employer. The vast majority of its workers are young women from the provinces. They migrate, often alone, to work long hours in sweltering conditions in factories around the capital Phnom Penh, and try to send money home to their families and the children they leave behind.
