ILO Asia-Pacific Garment and Footwear Sector Research Note Issue 3

Working hours in the global garment industry

This research note provides an overview of working hours in the garment sector in major apparel exporting economies. It shows that garment exporters have a range of different limits on normal working hours, overtime work, and penalty rates for overtime, as well as different annual leave and public holidays.

The 24 economies included in this research note had the largest market share in apparel exports among developing and emerging economies in 2013. Together, they make up 89 per cent of global garment exports from developing nd emerging economies (UNCTAD, 2013).