EXCLUSIVE REVEALED: How the women making Meghan's £700 'ethical' handbags are paid as little as 10 PENCE PER HOUR, as exposed in this bombshell investigation by the Mail On Sunday By DAISY GRAHAM-BROWN Published: 20:57 EST, 14 December 2024 | Updated: 21:09 EST, 14 December 2024 e-mail View comments When the Duchess of Sussex announced this summer that she was investing in a luxury handbag brand popular with Hollywood A-listers, she spoke enthusiastically about how the company's 'ethical standards' were 'incredibly important to me'. Yet a Mail on Sunday investigation has found that Cesta Collective – whose high-end designs sell for more than £700 a time – pays some of the women who make them as little as 10 pence an hour. Weavers working from their cement or mudbrick homes in isolated, rural villages in Rwanda can earn as little as 82p for an eight-hour day, despite the company hailing them as 'talented female artisans' who are the 'best in class at their craft'.
The figure is less than half the £1.70 a day the World Bank considers as the 'extreme poverty' line. Cesta Collective, which boasts of its 'fair compensation practices', says the earning figures do take into account women's other sources of income and said the World Bank figure was outdated and not equally applicable to all Rwandans.
The World Bank confirmed the accuracy of the figure to the MoS. Meghan's endorsement of the 'incredible' company worked wonders for its sales. When she was pictured carrying one o.
