Sarah Gonzalez

Again, she doesn't speak English, but she makes gestures to the boss, she says, and gets by just fine.

She'll be like, mister, come, come, look, look how much trimming this garment needs.

He'll be like, okay, you want an extra cent?

No, two cents, she'll say.

And she's gotten it.

But that would get her like an extra $10 for the day.

Now, piece rate pay varies depending on what you're doing.

The trimming is considered the finishing touches before a garment gets ironed and sent out to a store or brand.

The person on the iron in L.A.

might get 50 cents per garment.

It's more dangerous.

The person who sewed on the sleeves, did the bottom hem, maybe 12 cents.

In the U.S.?

Lynn Bureti is the head of the Department of Design and Merchandising at Oklahoma State University.

But back in the 90s, Lynn actually also helped figure out what garment workers working for U.S.

brands would be paid.

Like, she'd watch them on the assembly line, sewing on a pocket, sewing on a seam.

So you're standing there with a stopwatch, like, okay, she did that in 30 seconds.

Now 35 seconds.

So your job was to determine how many cents to pay or to charge per piece?