Business Ethics 3rd Edition by Laura Hartman

Exercise 8

You are a senior global human resources manager for a large apparel retailer that purchases goods from all over the world. The media have focused a great deal of attention on the conditions of your suppliers' workplaces and, for myriad reasons including a strong commitment to your values-based mission, as well as a concern for your reputation, you are paying close attention to the wages paid to the workers who construct your clothing. Your suppliers in several locations have agreed to talk with you about developing a policy that would apply throughout your operations-now and in the future, wherever you plan to do business-and would impose a minimum wage requirement for all factory workers. You begin to explore some of the resources publicly available to you, such as www.globalexchange.org, www.workersrights.org, www.fairlabor.org, and www.ethicaltrade.org/, to find out what other firms are doing and what labor advocates recommend in terms of language for policies such as these. You explore Nike's website at www.nikeinc.com, www.adidas-group.com, and others. Now it is time to begin constructing your own policy. What will you include, how specific will you make this policy, how will you determine what will be the "living wage" in each region, and what elements will it contain? Please draft a policy for your company on implementing a living wage worldwide.