Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Chinese Workers Allegedly Earning $1/Hour Making Ivanka Trump Clothing

The nonprofit China Labor Watch has reported that workers in two factories producing Ivanka Trump’s brand are being significantly underpaid and overworked.

According to Bloomberg, the organization wrote a letter to the president’s daughter, explaining that employees are working 12 1/2 hours a day, six days a week, with a monthly salary of around 2,500 yuan ($363).

Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch, added that the workers are expected to meet a certain quota of the apparel they make, and if they do not, they have to work unpaid overtime. There is also reportedly no safety training offered at the factories.

The letter did not provide specific details pertaining to the names of the factories, or the products being created there, saying that they were still investigating.

Abigail Klem, president of the Ivanka Trump brand, said that there was not enough evidence to properly purse the issue. “[It is] impossible for us to respond to allegations, with no supporting evidence, concerning an unnamed factory,” she explained.

Thea Glassman is an Associate Editor at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @theakglassman.

A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren

We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.

With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.

—  Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief 

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.