Fair Pay

HUGO BOSS IS COMMITTED TO FAIR COMPENSATION IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN

Our Commitment

At HUGO BOSS, we are committed to fair compensation in the supply chain. We understand that fair compensation among our global partners is not only the basis for long-term trust and partnership, but is also a prerequisite for employees to live independent lives. For us, this also includes the payment of living wages by suppliers to their employees. For HUGO BOSS, this has been and will continue to be an essential aspect of a sustainable supply chain. That is why we are participating in the design of industry-wide standards and working together with other stakeholders on an individual compensation strategy for our suppliers' employees.

We are convinced that all employees, both at our own production sites and at those of our suppliers, have the right to receive regular and fair compensation for their work. At a minimum, the nationally applicable statutory minimum wage must be respected. Furthermore, HUGO BOSS recognizes the right to freedom of association, collective bargaining, and equal pay, and is committed to ensuring that these rights are granted to employees within its sphere of influence.





The work performance of a standard working week, as defined by the respective national legislation and the Core Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), shall be sufficiently remunerated by the supplier. The aim is to enable local employees and their families to have a decent standard of living. For HUGO BOSS, this means that the monetary means available must be sufficient to ensure the basic needs of food, water, housing, education, health care, transport, and clothing for all members of the household. In addition, employees should have disposable income to build up reserves for unexpected events.

The Seven Guiding Principles of our Living Wage Strategy

  • Long-term target

    We aim to ensure fair compensation among our global partners. Paying fair wages is not only the basis for long-term trust and partnership but is also a prerequisite for employees to have a decent standard of living. We, therefore, aim to create the right conditions and scalable solutions towards fair compensation in our supply chain.

  • Statutory Minimum Wage

    The minimum wage is regarded as a fundamental basis for suppliers and is an essential step towards improving wages in the direction of a living wage. We expect all suppliers to meet the nationally applicable statutory minimum wage as well as observe and comply with the national regulations for health and social welfare systems. In addition, we demand that suppliers respect the right of their employees to receive information on individual salaries (e.g. through detailed salary statements).

  • Wage transparency in our supply chain

    Corporate due diligence entails the knowledge of one’s own supply chain. In this context, and to support our target for achieving living wages for the employees of our partners, we strive for more transparency in our own supply chain. These efforts are based on wage data assessments and gap analyses of our finished goods suppliers, using recognized benchmarks for living wages. With a data and strategy driven approach, we define a step-by-step roadmap for living wages together with our suppliers.

  • Responsible Purchasing Practices

    We consider all purchasing practices that do not compromise the human rights of workers in the supply chain to be responsible. By promoting responsible purchasing practices, we contribute to fair working conditions and play a crucial role in improving wages. At HUGO BOSS, we are committed to evaluating and continuously improving our purchasing practices against the Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices (CFRPP).

    For us, responsible purchasing practices mean:

    • mutually trustful and long-term partnerships
    • responsible exit from business relationships
    • joint planning and production forecasts
    • respectful and continuous dialog with suppliers about the processing of orders and associated payments
    • mandatory training on responsible sourcing
  • Collective Bargaining

    We recognize collective bargaining including the right of freedom of association and are committed to ensuring that these rights are granted to employees within our sphere of influence. Employees shall be free to negotiate in social dialogs tailor-made solutions and binding agreements on working conditions and wages. Wherever possible, the binding agreement is aimed to be on an industry level. If necessary, we support our suppliers in dialog with their various stakeholders or offer them training programs or consulting services.

  • Empowering & Capacity Building

    For the management and workers of our suppliers and for our own employees we promote capacity building. In this context, we encourage our suppliers to participate in specific trainings in an e-learning platform with 70+ different training topics in relevant human rights, such as working hours and fair labor practices, and management areas.

  • Engagement & Partnership

    As we consider fair compensation as a human right, we work with initiatives such as the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to further promote this right. Additionally, we are actively involved in the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, for example, in initiatives and working groups centered on purchasing practices and living wage. We are also establishing communication and cooperation with other companies in order to share best practices and discuss possible solutions to the challenges together.

Our approach

We are aware that the statutory minimum wage that has been set in countries we source from may not be sufficient to provide workers with the above-mentioned decent standard of living. Since we recognize fair compensation as a human right, and have also embedded this into our Supplier Code of Conduct, we work with initiatives such as the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to further promote this right. We play a key role in setting standards for living wages along the entire textile supply chain. In cooperation with the FLA and as part of an initiative of the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, we actively promote political and economic conditions that aim to improve wage levels in target countries. HUGO BOSS continuously examines the remuneration practices of its suppliers with the aim of bringing wages closer to living wage levels.

In particular, and analyze any wage gaps, among other things. For this purpose, we apply the FLA Compensation Dashboard. The dashboard is used to compare the average wage of suppliers with recognized benchmarks for living wages, in which we refer, in particular, to the wages specified by the Global Living Wage Coalition. This is due to the methodology of objective, consistent and regional data for living wages. If these are not available for certain countries, we take into account other reference values recognized by the FLA and the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles. Based on the identified wage gaps, targeted projects involving our suppliers can be implemented to reach a sustainable increase in wages. This is done in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, such as national and international NGOs, civil society organizations, and trade unions or local legislators. 

Overview of our activities

  • Our Targets

    On a short term:
    Progressive improvement of wages at select pilot suppliers until 2025. The goal of the pilot is to achieve a sustainable increase in wages towards living wage or at least the defined target wage.

    On a long term:
    Scalable solution towards fair compensation in our supply chain with a focus on finished goods suppliers by 2030.

  • OUR LATEST ACHIEVEMENTS

    Our concrete actions to achieve fair compensation in our global supply chain are in alignment with our strategy and targets.

    2019 - 2021: 

    • As one of the first steps in our Living Wage journey, we collected wage data from our strategic finished goods suppliers in APAC (Asia Pacific) . We prioritized the analysis of high-volume partners and countries where there is a high risk of employees not being paid a living wage. In the next step, we collected wage data from our strategic EMEA (Economic Region Europe, Middle East and Africa) and AMER (Economic Region The Americas) suppliers. By the end of 2021, we had collected wage data from more than 70 suppliers in 18 countries. Of these, 50 suppliers are surveyed on a regular basis.
    • We are promoting cross-departmental-engagement linking  sustainability, purchasing and HR  and defining accountability to uphold our commitment.
    • To this end we have set up a HUGO BOSS Task Force that will continue to drive forward the issue of living wages.
    • We developed the HUGO BOSS Living Wage Strategy with its seven guiding principles.
    • We conducted a survey on responsible purchasing practices using the ACT questionnaires, both, internally and with our suppliers, and  defined action plans, for example,  to implementing internal training and developing metrics for responsible purchasing.

    2022:     

    • Based on the wage data collection and gap analysis, and to tackle the issue in a systematic and collaborative way, we developed a comprehensive action plan , tools and trainings, and engagement for a successful living wage pilot project.

    2023:

    • We developed a report  for the Fair Labor Association (FLA) called Fair Compensation Blueprint (updated version). It articulates our priorities and describes how we will implement changes or test new approaches to improve worker pay.
    • We have published a detailed wage data analysis. This includes data from our most important sourcing countries, with a focus on strategic tier 1 suppliers.

    2024:

    • Participation in the "Living Wage Lab 2.0" initiative, led by the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, with other brands
    • Obtaining and updating wage data from our strategic suppliers
  • OUR ANALYSIS ON COMPENSATION IN OUR SUPPLY CHAIN

    We continuously collect and analyze wage data from our suppliers on an ongoing basis. Detailed information can be found here, in our supply chain compensation analysis.

  • OUR NEXT STEPS

    We are committed to continuously collecting and analyzing wage data from our finished goods suppliers with a focus on the strategic partners.

    2022 – 2027:

    WAGES:

    We have started working on our first pilot projects with  four suppliers in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka in collaboration with relevant multi-stakeholder and local organizations. You can get an insight into our pilot projects here in our case study. To move forward, the following activities are planned:

    • Joint agreement with suppliers on remediation priorities to bring wages closer to the living wage levels
    • Focus on: collective bargaining through social dialog, wage management systems, empowerment, overtime reduction, fair share, gender gap, and individual living wage
    • We continuously monitor and evaluate the activities and the progress towards the defined goals . The final impact measurement is planned at the end of the pilot in 2025.

    PURCHASING PRACTICES

    • We will derive Individual measures: These will be based on the assessment of our pilot suppliers, in line with the Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices (CFRPP).
    • It is expected that better purchasing and efficiency through manufacturing excellence will lead to a positive impact on workers’ wages.
    • HUGO BOSS will continue to operationalize living wages and responsible purchasing practices within the company by providing awareness training sessions to nominated buyers.
    • In addition, we will draw up guidelines for responsible purchasing practices in 2024 in collaboration with Procurement and other internal stakeholders. These will include both the approach of mandatory responsible purchasing and an indication of the level of progress we are aiming for in the future.

    MULTI-STAKEHOLDER-ENGAGEMENT

    • We will continue to engage in joint actions on Living Wage with other brands and multi-stakeholder initiatives. For example, we have joined the initiative “Living Wage Lab 2.0” of the  Partnership for Sustainable Textiles. HUGO BOSS has participate in the multi-stakeholder iInitiative “Learning and Implementation Community on Responsible Purchase Practices” (LIC) during the last two years. Building on this participation, HUGO BOSS will develop guidelines for responsible purchasing practices and a progress plan.

OUR LIVING WAGE PILOT IN BANGLADESH, VIETNAM, AND SRI LANKA

Compensation is a complex issue involving macro and micro economics, social and cultural norms, and political priorities.  Our selection of pilot suppliers had severalt core aspects to positively impact workers’ wages: Identifying countries where workers may be at higher risk of low wages and where an immediate impact can be achieved, focusing on the results of our wage data analysis, and leveraging long-term and trusted relationships.

In 2022, HUGO BOSS launched the Living Wage Pilot with four suppliers in three countries (Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka). A total of almost 20,000 workers are being covered.

We expect to have a significant positive impact on our supply chain and to gain important knowledge.

The program includes activities focused on five workstreams: wages, purchasing, empowerment, efficiency, and social dialog.

Our ambition is to go beyond ensuring the statutory minimum wage. We aim to achieve progressive and sustainable wage improvement towards a living wage or at least the defined target wage at these production sites.

We have adjusted the roadmap slightly in order to achieve a greater impact for our pilot suppliers. Accordingly, the pilot project is planned to run until 2027 (previously until 2025) with a final impact measurement and commitment to continuity beyond the end of the pilot. For more information on our pilot, read our case study here.

The standards we set in our supply chain also apply to our own production facilities. As a first step, we accordingly assessed the wages at our production site in Izmir, Türkiye. The analyse showed a significant increase in wages so that HUGO BOSS could compensate for the high inflation rate at Türkiye. On average our employees in Izmir receive a living wage in accordance with the reference value of the Global Living Wage Coalition.

Fair pay as part of our human resources work

HUGO BOSS understands that fair pay is an essential aspect of the core of human resources. Through a fair, transparent and competitive remuneration structure, we want to ensure equal opportunities and avoid discrimination, as well as increase the competitiveness of the company. Furthermore, we aim to strengthen the motivation of our employees and their loyalty to the company.

Since the beginning of 2021, all positions worldwide are being evaluated on the basis of standardized criteria and clustered into so-called ‘grades’. Job-specific qualifications and responsibilities form the basis of our grading system. This assessment enables compensation to be graded in line with market-based salary bands, irrespective of gender or other diversity characteristics. This principle is also set out in the HUGO BOSS Code of Conduct.

In individual cases, specific market conditions, experience (employment biography), and performance are also key factors that play a role in defining individual remuneration.

HUGO BOSS is committed to a continuous improvement process to ensure fair pay. For example, we have published a global Fair Pay Commitment and gradually initiate corresponding measures worldwide. For example, HUGO BOSS AG uses Equal Pay metrics in its annual salary round. This enables managers to consciously decide on compensation based on transparency.

The compensation system at HUGO BOSS comprises fixed and variable salary components, bonuses above the standard pay scale, benefits in kind, and other benefits. It takes into account collective bargaining agreements and includes national and regional benchmarks. Variable remuneration components relate to the achievement of targets within the Group, in the local entities and, in the retail environment, as well as to team performance and individual performance.

We analyze gender-specific compensation differences among employees in comparable positions based on our grading system. This involves comparing the average annual compensation amounts of women and men, on a full-time basis within the individual grades. There is no correction for biographical factors that influence individual salaries.

In terms of employees in Europe and NCSA (~ 90% of all employees), the average salary of women overall, related to comparable positions is 2,9% lower than that of men (Status: June 2024).

We are continuously working on expanding our global compensation analyses, in particular to identify drivers of unequal pay like for instance biographical factors. It is of high priority for HUGO BOSS to further advance gender equality in remuneration and to minimize salary disparities.

For more information about fair compensation, see the  Sustainability Report.