Mr. Bozich says the factory’s cost will be $4.80 a T-shirt, 80 cents or 20 percent more than if it paid minimum wage. Knights will absorb a lower-than-usual profit margin, he said, without asking retailers to pay more at wholesale.

“Obviously we’ll have a higher cost,” Mr. Bozich said. “But we’re pricing the product such that we’re not asking the retailer or the consumer to sacrifice in order to support it.”

Knights plans to sell the T’s for $8 wholesale, with most retailers marking them up to $18.

This is important. To pay a living wage costs $0.80 more per T-shirt than to force garment workers to live in abject poverty. That's $0.80 for a T-shirt that Barnes and Nobel at Georgia Tech will sell for $18.00.

So, let's agree: 1) no more bullshit about how much it costs companies to do what's right for 3rd-world workers and 2) no more bullshit about how Americans can't afford to pay living wages for producers of their consumables.

-janelane

An Apparel Factory Defies Stereotypes, but Can It Thrive? - NYTimes.com