Fair Work Monitor Cambodia 2025 reveals persistent wage gaps

A Call for Action on Fair Wages & Working Conditions

Posted
18 September 2025, 10:25

Last updated
25 September 2025, 09:26

On Equal Pay Day and just one day after the new minimum wage for Cambodia’s garment sector was set at USD 210, CNV Internationaal released the Fair Work Monitor results for Cambodia for 2025. The Fair Work Monitor gives a powerful insight into the realities faced by garment workers in Cambodia. This year, nearly 2,900 workers across 98 factories participated in the survey, making this one of the most comprehensive worker-driven data sets for the Cambodian garment sector.

The findings reveal persistent gaps:

Low basic wages: 99% of workers in the survey earn below the living wage threshold of USD 232 in Phnom Penh.
Overtime dependency: Most workers rely on overtime to meet basic expenses, making them vulnerable to fluctuations in demand from brands.
Restricted access to healthcare: Due to low wages, spending on necessary healthcare and food is often sacrificed by workers. This results in workers or family members having to live with persistent pain.
Limited access to benefits: Skilled labour or food allowances are inconsistently applied.
Debt and insecurity: Workers in the survey carry an average debt equal to 17 months of income with high interest rates.
Freedom of association remains restricted, limiting workers' ability to negotiate improvements.

To read the full report click here

Over the past weeks Cambodian trade unions have already used the latest data in the annual minimum wage negotiations for the garment sector. Yet global trade pressures limited the wage increase to just USD 2, underscoring workers’ continued vulnerability. Especially women who make up 75.6% of the workforce and are concentrated in the lowest-paid positions.

The relevance of the data we collected however goes beyond national wage-setting. The Fair Work Monitor also offers Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) insights for brands and helps to identify and prioritize risks in the supply chain.

What is new in this year's report, is that we have included a list of factories where workers took part in the survey. These are factories where independent trade unions are active, and where many workers have received HRDD training, creating tangible opportunities for collaboration on the ground.

CNV Internationaal and the Fair Impact Programme

In the Fair Impact Programme, CNV Internationaal provides companies with the tools to go beyond compliance and create impact in their supply chains. One of these tools is the Fair Work Monitor.

Through the Fair Work Monitor, now active for four years in Cambodia, we collaborate with six major national trade union partners to collect direct input from workers about wages, working conditions, and their lived realities and prepare annual wage reports. In 2025, around 2,900 workers across 98 garment factories participated in the survey.

This work supports fair wage-setting processes and helps build safer and better working conditions. This makes The Fair Work Monitor an invaluable tool for doing due diligence: by identifying the most pressing labour risks in garment factories, it gives brands a clear, data-driven starting point to prioritize and act where it matters most.

Through the Fair Impact Programme we offer:

Insight and advice how to work on improved wages, working conditions, social dialogue, and grievance mechanisms at your suppliers

Support for independent worker representation at your suppliers to form or strengthen independent trade unions

Joint action plans to solve these key issues at supplier factories, including using worker-driven monitoring and social dialogue

Training for union representatives and management on topics such as social dialogue, freedom of association, OSH, gender equality and human rights due diligence to build their capacity and help solve workplace issues constructively

Contact us before October 1st if you are interested to learn more about the Fair Work Monitor results and explore opportunities for collaboration.