SHEIN is committed to engaging stakeholders across our supply chain — including suppliers, factory management, and workers — to strengthen transparency, accountability, and responsible business practices. We recognise that effective human rights diligence cannot rely on social audits alone, and have been working to build a more robust due diligence programme that is grounded in ongoing supplier engagement, worker awareness, grievance mechanisms, targeted capacity-building, and risk-based monitoring.
In 2025, we worked with Cascale Better Buying and Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) on projects to drive supplier and worker engagement, gathering insights that will inform how we may refine our supply chain management practices going forward. The key outcomes and findings from each project are summarised below.
A.WAGE ASSESSMENT AND WORKER SURVEY BY WORLDWIDE RESPONSIBLE ACCREDITED PRODUCTION
As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen supply chain oversight, SHEIN commissioned Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) to conduct an independent wage assessment and worker survey among selected suppliers[1] in Guangzhou.
The initiative was designed to supplement routine social audits with additional data validation and structured worker feedback. While compliance reviews assess whether standards are being met, this study analysed wage practices in greater detail and incorporated workers’ perspectives on pay, working conditions and broader employment expectations.
208 of SHEIN’s largest suppliers of SHEIN-branded products in Guangzhou, ranked by procurement value were selected to participate in the study. On-site visits were conducted between May and November 2025 by assessors from three WRAP-accredited monitoring firms: Accordia, ALGI and CTI. The study comprised two components:
1. Wage Assessment
A wage assessment focused on evaluating total and hourly wages for a random sample of frontline workers, based on submissions of their most recent three months of attendance and payroll records. The assessment reviewed compliance with local legal minimum wage and overtime premium requirements, and compared wages against living wage benchmarks calculated by CTI with reference to leading international standards. In total, 7,317 wage samples from 2,441 workers were analysed.
2. Worker Survey
An 18-question survey to gather worker feedback on their wages, living expense needs, and overall job satisfaction. The survey was available on a voluntary basis to workers employed by the participating suppliers, and any worker who wished to participate could scan a QR code that directed them to the survey site to input their responses anonymously in Chinese. Workers were also asked to disclose their gender, job function, and years of experience, to enable analysis by demographic data. A total of 9,981 unique survey responses were received.
FINDINGS AND FOLLOW-UPS
The findings below relate to the sampled suppliers and survey respondents participating in this study.
Wage Assessment
- 95.3% of sampled workers earned at or above the reference hourly living wage benchmark calculated for Guangzhou by CTI, with 61.2% earning at least 40% above this benchmark.
- 99.8% of the wage records reviewed in the sample complied with local legal minimum wage requirements, with 95.5% earning at least 40% above the statutory minimum wage.
- 97.5% of the sampled wage records reflected compliance with legal overtime wage premium requirements.
The wage assessment showed strong baseline compliance with the local legal minimum wage and overtime premium requirements, consistent with findings from SHEIN’s Supplier Responsibility Standards (SRS) audits. For the small number of cases where minimum wage or overtime premium issues were identified, we followed up with the relevant suppliers to understand root causes and worked with them to address gaps in compliance.
No significant disparities in wages were observed by gender or department, suggesting consistency in wage treatment across different worker groups within the sampled population.
Worker Survey
While payroll analysis provides a quantitative view of compliance and earnings levels, the worker survey offered additional insight into how wages and working conditions are experienced.
- Wage adequacy and progression: Worker perceptions on wage adequacy added nuance to the wage assessment findings. 60.9% of survey respondents felt their wages were sufficient to cover living expenses and 12.4% were unsure. While the remaining 26.7% expressed that their wages felt insufficient, this perception gap may reflect a broader observation pertinent for living wage research, that perceived sufficiency is shaped as much by personal needs and aspirations as by earnings levels. Regarding future outlook, 63.5% reported being confident or very confident about potential income increases. When asked about areas where they hoped to improve their quality of life through higher income, respondents most frequently cited children’s education and housing.
- Working hour preferences: For the optional open-ended feedback section in the survey, 81 respondents (approximately 1% of total survey respondents) provided feedback related to working hours. Responses showed that preferences around working hours were mixed, reflecting diverse worker needs — while 39 workers indicated a preference for shorter working hours, 42 others indicated they would prefer the option of being able to work additional hours and take on more workload.
- Overall job satisfaction: Survey responses suggested generally positive perceptions of working conditions among respondents; 86.8% of respondents reported satisfaction with their working environment, 65.6% described themselves as being very satisfied or satisfied with their current job, 32.0% felt neutral, and only 2.4% indicated dissatisfaction. 10.9% indicated definite or possible plans to change jobs in the near future.
- Communication and feedback: Workplace communication indicators were also largely positive— 86.9% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they could communicate opinions or suggestions smoothly to their factory management; and 86.5% agreed or strongly agreed that they would receive timely responses. However, 34.9% of respondents indicated that they were not aware of SHEIN’s existing grievance channels, indicating that additional awareness raising efforts may be beneficial.
Overall, the wage assessment and the worker survey suggested that the participating suppliers have established a strong foundation of compliance with legal requirements related to wages, stable wage practices, and generally positive worker perceptions—with the vast majority of workers found to be already earning equal to or above the living wage.
At the same time, the findings also point to clear opportunities to further assess wage progression, benefits, and aspects of daily working conditions that support the broader needs and aspirations of workers
Following on from the study, SHEIN is also partnering with WRAP and the Ethical Supply Chain Program (ESCP), a global non-profit organisation that promotes ethical practices throughout supply chains, to pilot the small-scale rollout of an independently operated third-party worker care hotline in selected supplier facilities. Since launching in March 2026, the hotline has provided workers with access to legal, psychological, and HR support, offering them professional and efficient support for real-life challenges they face at their workplaces and at home.
Going forward, SHEIN will strive to integrate feedback and perspectives from our suppliers’ workers more holistically into studies on wages, working hours and working conditions, as we amplify efforts to understand and improve conditions across our supply chain.
More details on the study can be found on WRAP’s webpage here.
B.BETTER BUYING PARTNERSHIP INDEX (BBPI)
In addition to assessing wage practices and worker perceptions, SHEIN also sought to better understand supplier perspectives on how we can be a better purchasing partner to them.
We participated as a subscriber in the fifth annual ratings cycle of the Better Buying Partnership Index (BBPI) by Cascale Better Buying. 72 of SHEIN’s suppliers participated in the 12-question BBPI survey, which asked them to rate SHEIN’s purchasing practices across five key metrics: Time, Visibility, Stability, Fair Financials, and Shared Responsibility.
FINDINGS AND FOLLOW-UPS
SHEIN received a score of +64 on a scale of from -100 to +100, compared to the softgoods[2] benchmark score of +61. Overall, 90.3% of supplier respondents rated SHEIN favourably as a preferred partner.
Supplier respondents rated SHEIN positively on having fair financial practices, engaging in business dealings free from corruption and bribery, and providing them with visibility into information that helps them plan business operations. Qualitative feedback from respondents highlighted several areas of satisfaction: the convenience of SHEIN’s digital systems; strong training; timely payments; friendly and efficient communication; and information-sharing practices that support suppliers’ planning, production, and inventory management decisions.
Suppliers also identified areas where SHEIN can improve. They expressed a desire for greater and more stable order volumes, noting that demand variability – during off-peak periods or when specific styles or products are removed from sale, for example – can create challenges in capacity planning. Suppliers also reported facing rising costs and cashflow pressures in a more competitive and challenging global trade environment, and hoped for closer communication and support from SHEIN on short-term demand shifts and long-term business strategy changes, to reduce disruption and uncertainty and support more efficient operations.
Findings from the BBPI survey were shared with SHEIN’s senior leadership and relevant business teams to inform ongoing efforts to strengthen purchasing practices and supplier engagement.
[1] Based on total procurement value.
[2] Defined in the BBPI 2025 rating cycle as “including apparel, footwear, and household goods”.
