Average weekly earnings for production workers were $334 in 2002, significantly lower than the overall $619 per week in manufacturing and $506 in the entire private sector.

Traditionally, sewing machine operators are paid on a piecework basis determined by the quantity of goods they produce. Many companies are changing to incentive systems based on group performance that consider both the quantity and quality of the goods produced. A few companies pay production workers a salary.

Relatively few workers in the apparel industry belong to unions. About 8 percent of apparel workers are union members or are covered by a union contract, compared with 15 percent for the economy as a whole. The major union in the apparel industry is the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE), which was formed in 1995 from the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union.