Behind each industry

• Clothing & footwear

  Most clothes and shoes are sewn in China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and India, where the legal minimum wage is well below what a family needs to live on.

  773 brands graded

  • Good41
  • On Track85
  • Lacks transparency594
  • Harm on record59

• Chocolate & cocoa

  Nearly half the world's cocoa grows on small family farms in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, where most farmers earn less than a living income and child labour is widespread.

  111 brands graded

  • Good12
  • On Track6
  • Lacks transparency91
  • Harm on record2

• Coffee

  Coffee is grown on millions of small farms and large estates across the tropics, and most of it is picked by hand.

  115 brands graded

  • Good8
  • On Track7
  • Lacks transparency91
  • Harm on record9

• Tea

  In India, Sri Lanka and Kenya, much of the world's tea is picked on large estates where workers live in estate housing and rely on the estate for water, healthcare and schools as well as wages.

  92 brands graded

  • Good8
  • Lacks transparency73
  • Harm on record11

• Electronics

  A phone or laptop is assembled in factories in China, Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia, from metals that are often dug by hand, including cobalt from DR Congo.

  239 brands graded

  • Good3
  • On Track2
  • Lacks transparency226
  • Harm on record8

• Homewares, furniture & appliances

  Furniture, linen, kitchenware and appliances are made from timber, cotton, clay, plastic and metal, and the riskiest work is often in the forests, fields and chemical plants behind the factory.

  498 brands graded

  • Good14
  • On Track84
  • Lacks transparency395
  • Harm on record5

• Jewellery & watches

  Gold and gemstones often come from small, informal mines, where miners, children among them, dig by hand and use mercury to separate the gold.

  146 brands graded

  • On Track30
  • Lacks transparency115
  • Harm on record1

• Fish & seafood

  Fishing crews can spend months at sea without coming ashore, out of reach of labour inspectors and of the audits that check the plants where seafood is packed.

  127 brands graded

  • On Track2
  • Lacks transparency113
  • Harm on record12

• Supermarkets & grocers

  Much of the work behind a supermarket shelf, from picking and packing to cleaning the store, is done through labour hire firms and contractors, and that's where wages most often go missing.

  12 brands graded

  • Lacks transparency9
  • Harm on record3

• Cars, bikes & e-mobility

  Most of the harm in a car or e-bike happens long before the assembly line, in the mines that dig its battery metals and the smelters that make its aluminium, some of them in Xinjiang, where audits can't go.

  14 brands graded

  • Lacks transparency11
  • Harm on record3

• Solar & batteries

  The silicon in most solar panels sold in Australia starts in Chinese smelters and polysilicon plants, many of them in Xinjiang, where the government moves Uyghur workers into factories that no independent auditor can visit.

  14 brands graded

  • Lacks transparency13
  • Harm on record1

• Beauty & personal care

  Most beauty products are mixed and bottled in modern factories, but the mica that makes them shimmer and the palm oil in their soaps and creams are often dug or picked by people no factory audit reaches, including children.

  14 brands graded

  • Lacks transparency14

Each guide's figures name their sources. The grades follow the rules on the Grading page.