In May 2019 coverage of NYU Stern’s Made in Ethiopia report found Hawassa Industrial Park garment workers on a customary base wage of about 750 birr, roughly $26 a month, the lowest in any major apparel-exporting country, while sewing for brands chasing Asia’s rising costs.
Young women from farming families shared rooms without plumbing, struggled with food and transport, and quit or stopped lines when pay failed basic needs. Ethiopia had no private-sector minimum wage to stop the race to the bottom.
Abiy Ahmed’s industrial-park miracle sold jobs. The Stern research asked the only adult question: jobs that cannot feed workers are not a development model, they are a labor discount for foreign buyers.
Kept as labor/business archive, the garment-wage file still frames Ethiopia’s manufacturing pitch. Investors wanted cheap hands. Workers needed a living wage.
Sources: Washington Post, NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights
