Sarah Gonzalez

Maria is a member of a group called the Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles.

The center and also Aisha's nonprofit pushed for this law in California that prohibits piece rate pay in the garment industry.

It passed four years ago.

So now, by law, Maria is supposed to be getting paid hourly at minimum wage or better, not by the piece.

But getting all the brands and factories to comply with the law is another story.

Sometimes garment workers are asked to clock in and clock out every day, even though they are not paid by the hour.

Factories do this to try to avoid being caught by state investigators.

They'll even coach workers on what color clothes

paycheck would be if they got a paycheck, not cash, so that they can be more believable to investigators.

Our purple sports bra, the one we bought, we spoke to a worker who says they worked on those bras, paid by the piece.

And the company that made it was actually fined for using factories in California that were committing wage theft and issuing fake checks.

And listen, many brands have worked with factories that pay garment workers per piece.

According to the Department of Labor, it's been contractors and manufacturers that make clothes for Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Lulu's, Dillard's.

So it's not just the, you know, bad fast fashion brands doing this.

It's luxury brands.

It's good American brands that boast about being made with U.S.

labor, like our sports bra.

And if factories get wind...

that maybe someone is poking around on how they're paying workers, there's this thing that can happen.

the factory can close up, relocate, change their name to avoid having to back pay workers.