First Daughter Ivanka Trump has recently sought to present herself as a champion of working Americans, and working women in particular, but new revelations about the provenance of her eponymous fashion line have cast the 35-year-old's business practices in a very dubious light.
The Washington Post reports that an audit by the Fair Labour Association, a garment industry watchdog, found a Chinese factory used by the G-111 Apparel Group (the company that holds the exclusive license to make Ivanka-branded clothing) violated international labour standards on two dozen counts during a visit made in October.
According to the Post, 'workers faced daunting hours, high turnover and pay near or below China's minimum wage.'
Workers were expected to complete 57 hours a week on average, with most adding on 82 hours of overtime per month. Their pay averaged out at around $255 to $283 a month, well below China's minimum wage: at an hourly rate, taking overtime into account, this works out at around $1 an hour.
The Post adds that less than one third of workers were offered insurance benefits like a pension, maternity rights or injury insurance. They were granted just five days of leave per year.
The FLA report did not specify the name or location of the factory in question, and did not detail whether Ivanka products were being manufactured during the two-day visit last autumn.
Ivanka stepped aside from her management role in her fashion company earlier this year, in order to prevent conflict of interest with her White House role, a position that has only recently been clearly defined. She does, however, still have an ownership interest in the company.
The Ivanka Trump brand has been the cause of much controversy in the past few months, with many women opting to boycott the label after her father Donald's infamous 'grab them by the pussy' comments on the campaign trail last year. It has since been dropped by department stores like Nordstrom, who cited poor sales as the reason behind their decision.
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