Following the 40 per cent decline in the revenue of Taiwanese owned Cambodian Grand Twins International (GTI); the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) has asserted that the mentioned losses are to be ascribed to the financial cost of worker strikes and wage hikes. GMAC estimates that the new US $ 128 per month minimum wage level will add more than US $ 200 million to the garment industry’s 2015 wage bill. “For an industry that works with 2-5 per cent profit margins, such inflated bills will wreak havoc,” said Ken Loo, Secretary General, GMAC. Independent economists like Srey Chanty on the other hand believed that average margins in the industry would be traditionally greater than 5 per cent. Although GTI’s latest financials showed a cumulative 8 per cent decline in revenue for the first nine months of the year, the company has still managed to record a 42 per cent increase in profits.

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