For the past 30 years, Maria has worked in Los Angeles as a seamstress, steamer, and trimmer. Back in the ‘90s, she made $20 per week, a salary she used to support herself and her three kids who lived in Mexico.
“The world was collapsing for me,” Maria, who wished to keep her last name private, tells Refinery29 in Spanish. “[The United States] was supposed to be the land of opportunity.” Her salary wasn’t enough to cover her basic needs in Los Angeles, let alone succeed as a breadwinner for her family.
But as of January 2022, she is covered under the Garment Worker Protection Act, also known as SB62, a bill she helped lobby for since 2020. “It’s a great victory for us garment workers,” says Maria.
The Garment Worker Protection Act — signed into law last September by California Governor Gavin Newsom — is an anti-wage theft and brand accountability bill that makes the state the first in the country to require hourly wages for garment workers. It also bans piecework, a practice that allowed manufacturers to pay workers per garment, resulting in a salary of less than $6 per hour, according to Marissa Nuncio, director of the Garment Workers Center (GWC), a 20-year-old organization that helps low-wage garment workers in California.
Furthermore, the law establishes a new accountability precedent for brands and manufacturers that will penalize wage theft and other illegal pay practices. Led by the GWC, state senator Maria Elena Durazo, and organizations like Remake — which works...
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