In June 2026, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire (trillionaire), amassing assets equivalent to 1 trillion US dollars. This disturbing milestone draws attention to a system in which those who already have wealth can use it to make themselves even richer, while many people without wealth are subjected to severe exploitation and see their labour and resources go largely uncompensated.

This mechanism by which wealth is transferred from the poor to the rich is global. Corporations seek to minimise the costs of producing goods and services and to maximise profit. To do this, they exploit power imbalances to obtain raw materials and products at unjustifiably low prices and actively seek out countries where labour costs are as low as possible and protection for workers is weak.

Through multiple articles, GNV has reported on the world’s massive and growing wealth gap and on the mechanisms by which profits generated from raw materials, labour, and production are unfairly distributed. This article looks back at a number of those pieces.

Cocoa beans (Photo: OutdoorPDK / Flickr [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0])

What does “fair” even mean?

Unfair trade usually focuses on the fact that the prices paid for traded goods and services are too low. Unfair labour, on the other hand, refers to situations where individual workers receive too little compensation for their work. But how should we think about the distinction between fair and unfair?

There are various ways of understanding “fair” trade. For example, some are based on the philosophy of “distributive justice,” which considers how resources in a society should be allocated. Here, we will introduce two approaches.

The first is to distribute returns according to the amount of labour producers needed to put into production. In other words, those who contribute more to the production of a product should receive greater compensation. However, this still leaves the problem of what standard should be used to measure the degree of contribution. A system based on working hours is perhaps the easiest to understand and may appear the most egalitarian, but it is also necessary to consider workers’ skills, capital, and technological inputs.

The second approach is based on human rights to subsistence and dignity, and seeks to set prices so that producers and workers can maintain at least a minimum standard of living. This adds a dimension of guaranteeing people’s lives and livelihoods to the first approach. Article 23, paragraph 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—“Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.”—is grounded precisely in this idea.

“Unfair trade pervasive across the world” March 10, 2022

The case of mineral resources

Many governments allow foreign companies to extract the natural resources beneath their soil in exchange for compensation.

They establish a system by which companies can “buy” the right to extract finite resources. This often takes the form of “royalties.” Royalties are not linked to profits, but are payments to the government calculated as a percentage of the volume of resources extracted. Governments may also charge sign-up and discovery bonuses related to exploration, as well as rental fees for the use of areas where exploration and production are carried out.

“Why does Australia give away its own gas for next to nothing?” May 14, 2026

However, especially in low-income countries, most of the wealth from these resources is taken away by the extracting companies.

Even when the current royalty tax rates are appropriate or even extremely low, it is not uncommon for mining companies to put pressure on resource-rich countries to lower the rates or to oppose any increase.

For example, in the Republic of Zambia, an African country known as a major copper producer, total copper output in 2010 and 2011 was 5.7 billion and 7.2 billion US dollars respectively, yet the total taxes paid by companies related to copper production were only 780 million and 1.5 billion US dollars. The Zambian government later submitted a bill to raise the mineral royalty tax on copper to 20%, but due to corporate opposition and a change of president, the royalty rates on copper mines were fixed at 9% for open-pit mining and 6% for underground mining. In other words, in terms of royalties alone, more than 90% of the value of the extracted copper can be said to end up in the hands of foreign companies.

“Mineral resources and the world: Where do the profits go?” August 17, 2017

A similar situation can be seen in Niger, where uranium is mined and the royalty rate was around 5.5% as of 2014.

Workers collecting mineral resources used in electronic components, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Photo: Responsible Sourcing / Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0])

In agriculture and fisheries

Farmers also suffer greatly from unfair trade. One example is the prices that West African cocoa farmers receive for their crops.

It is hard to say that the happiness of those savouring chocolate is shared by the producers of cocoa beans. The reality revealed by statistics is beyond imagination. Although 60% of the world’s cocoa beans are produced in just two countries, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, a survey conducted in 2018 in Côte d’Ivoire, the largest producer, found that only 7% of producers earned enough income to live without hardship, while 58% were in a state of extreme poverty. The situation is little different in neighbouring Ghana.

“Chocolate: The ‘bitter’ reality that goes unreported” February 7, 2019

Similar exploitation can be seen in the banana industry in the Philippines.

A major problem in the supply chain is that banana farmers, who sit at the very beginning of the chain, are unable to benefit sufficiently, and that labour conditions are opaque and unfair. It is estimated that 75% of farmers are smallholders who have entered into contracts with companies in ways unfavourable to them. The main reason is the power imbalance between farmers and foreign companies. Farmers have limited buyers, while foreign corporations, with their large capital and networks, dominate the supply chain and hold an overwhelmingly advantageous position in transactions. As a result, farmers end up selling bananas at prices unilaterally set by the companies, and data show that they receive only 2.4% of total gross profit. In fact, there is a report of a contract farmer who receives only about 0.03 US dollars for a 600–800 g bag of bananas.

“The hidden realities of the Philippine banana industry” August 25, 2022

In distant-water fisheries, workers are often completely isolated and beyond the reach of government oversight. In extreme cases, workers are held in slave-like conditions, with reports that they may even be killed if they disobey orders.

A 2020 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in the United States found that among 16,000 industrial fishing vessels analysed, an estimated 14–26% may be using forced labour. It is estimated that between 57,000 and 100,000 people working aboard these vessels may be at risk of forced labour.

Forced labour can escalate into slavery, in which crew members are subjected to even more horrific conditions. In one reported case, crew were fed only one bowl of rice a day and forced to work 20 hours a day on one vessel. According to a 2014 investigation by the Guardian into slave ships off the coast of Thailand reported, in some boats workers were subject not only to beatings and other violence, but also torture, the administration of methamphetamines to make them work for long periods, and even murder. There have been reports of slaves being executed in front of their fellow crew members.

“Human rights abuses at sea” June 22, 2023

Tea plantation, India (Photo: ঈশান জ্যোতি বৰা / Flickr [CC BY-SA 4.0])

In the apparel industry

Unfair trade and unfair labour are also major problems in the textile and garment industry, as seen in countries such as Cambodia, Bangladesh, Haiti, and Honduras. Regarding Bangladesh:

There is a 2011 study by a consulting firm examining how much money is paid to whom from a 1,130-yen polo shirt.

According to this study, the cost of a 1,130-yen polo shirt is 458 yen, of which workers receive only 10 yen—just over one-fifth of the factory’s 47-yen profit. Seen from the consumer’s purchase price, factory workers receive a mere 0.9% as wages. This shows just how severely workers are exploited and how much profit brands are making.

“The ‘flip side’ of the fashion industry” October 19, 2017

Similar problems can be found in Cambodia.

The most fundamental problem facing Cambodia’s textile industry is its extremely low wages. Since minimum wages were first introduced in 1997, the monthly minimum wage in the textile sector has been gradually raised from 40 US dollars, and in 2022 it was decided to raise it to 200 US dollars per month. However, as the graph below shows, this is still low compared to the so-called ethical poverty line of approximately 229 US dollars per month. Even if people work full-time and long hours in such factories, they cannot support their families—in fact, they themselves remain in poverty. Consequently, income from the textile industry plays only a supplementary role in household finances, and about 90% of workers in the sector are women.

“Cambodia: The reality of the apparel industry” February 9, 2023

Governments of powerful countries sometimes pressure the governments of low-income countries that produce garments to keep their minimum wages low. There have even been cases where they were involved in coups to overthrow local governments that tried to raise minimum wages, the most striking example being the 2004 intervention by the United States and Canada in Haiti.

The Canadian military also took part in the 2004 abduction of Haiti’s president. The main motive for this intervention is believed to have been dissatisfaction with the Haitian government’s decision to raise the minimum wage. The increase could have affected companies, including Canada’s garment industry, that had outsourced production to Haiti and other countries.

“An unequal world and Japan’s media” January 29, 2026

Garment factory, Cambodia (Photo: ILO Asia-Pacific / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

In the tertiary sector

Unfair labour is also deeply rooted in the IT field, exemplified by tech companies that outsource work to low-income countries.

When companies outsource with the goal of cost reduction, problems such as low wages can arise. There are two possible manifestations of low wages. The first is that the wage level itself is insufficient to sustain a living, with pay that does not match the amount or hours of work.

Looking at real-world examples, workers at a call centre in the Philippines to which US telecommunications company AT&T outsourced services were paid only 2 US dollars per hour. Some Amazon Mechanical Turk workers reported that working 4–5 hours a day for two months earned them only 700 US dollars, while others working 8 hours a day received just 25 US dollars a day. Another example is IT company Google, which paid thousands of temp workers in dozens of countries illegally low wages, as revealed in a case.

The second problem is the wage gap between outsourced workers and employees of the client company. Even when they perform similar tasks with comparable skills and experience, there is a huge disparity in income between the two. Comparing the hourly wages of skilled software developers with programming expertise shows that in countries like the US and Canada wages are around 60 US dollars an hour, while in Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, Russia, and Poland they are around 20 US dollars. Wages are even lower in Asian and African countries: roughly 10 US dollars in India, the Philippines, and Vietnam, and less than 10 US dollars in Egypt and Nigeria.

“Hidden problems in global outsourcing of IT services” October 7, 2021

In the world of private military industries too, companies have reportedly hired former soldiers from low-income countries and had them work for far less pay than people from high-income countries.

Because profit is the objective, problems arise regarding human resources as well. Unlike national armies, private military companies do not restrict employees by nationality, but wages differ depending on nationality and background. Retired soldiers from advanced economies generally have higher levels of training and cannot be hired without high salaries. In contrast, personnel from poor countries can be hired even at low pay, directly reflecting global inequality. For example, the conduct of British firm Aegis, which had been contracted to guard US military facilities in Iraq, drew attention in 2016. Initially, thanks to large contracts from the US military, the company mainly hired retired soldiers from advanced countries. But as contract fees declined, it began hiring retired soldiers from Nepal at lower wages, and eventually sourced even cheaper labour from Africa. Among those recruited for their military experience were former child soldiers from Sierra Leone, many of whom carried deep trauma, which became a major controversy.

“The privatisation of war? The rise of private military companies” September 6, 2018

Coding (Photo: Jack Sem / Flickr [CC BY 2.0])

Toward improvement?

In response to the above issues, there is a “fair trade movement” which seeks to certify and label products that have been traded fairly. However, this movement is still far from being able to significantly change the global status quo. Fair trade products often cover only a limited range of items and industries. Moreover, the prices of fair trade products are not always truly fair, and the majority of producers remain unable to escape poverty. Finally, the scale of the movement is far too small, and fair trade products still make up only a tiny fraction of the market.

Much remains to be done if we are to move toward improvement.