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Should Beyonce Be Held Accountable For Ivy Park Sweatshop Scandal? ‘Formation’ Singer Still Set To Earn Millions

By Maurice Cassidy
Published on: 00:17 PST, May 16, 2016

Beyonce’s Ivy Park sportswear collection at Top Shop is selling incredibly well, so much that the singer will be walking away with up to $10 million in earnings this year alone.

And while Beyonce will see a drastic increase in those numbers when the collection expands, the seamstresses responsible for the clothes are barely making enough money to feed themselves.

The Sun claims to have interviewed a handful of seamstresses based in Sri Lankan factories who are currently producing the clothes for the Ivy Park collection, admitting that the money they make in a day is no more than $6 — and that’s for a shift lasting up to nine hours.

The conditions are so bad that families often have to come together so that they can walk away with better pay at the end of the day, as one person admitted to having all of her siblings work in the same department so that they have an income that gets them by each month.

The irony in all of this is that Top Shop brands the collection as clothing that “empowers women through sport,” but when looking at the conditions behind the making of these expensive pieces, women are far from empowered, especially when there’s only a measly $6 paycheck attached to their hard work.

One woman responsible for the Ivy Park clothes admitted, “When they talk about women and empowerment this is just for the foreigners. They want the foreigners to think everything is okay.”

The woman, who is believed to be 22-years-old, went on to confirm that her salary per month never surpasses more than $125 — she cannot make any more than that since she is already working days on end just to surpass $100 by the month’s end.

And aside from the money they receive, the unidentified worker went on to stress that their resources are very limited as far as their own needs are concerned.

“We don’t have our own kitchen or shower; it’s just a small bedroom. We have to share the shower block with the men, so there isn’t much privacy. It is shocking and many of the women are very scared.”

While it may be a common fact that many companies overseas work with the cheapest seamstresses to create their clothes, it should be noted that Beyonce, who often brands herself as a feminist, has not reached out or publicly commented on the situation.

The 34-year-old will make an astounding amount in earnings from the Ivy Park collection, yet as a self-proclaimed feminist who marketed her self-titled album as a woman who wants to empower other women, this strongly seems to contradict what she stands for.

Whether or not Beyonce is going to respond to what one of the workers has said is doubtful, but social media users seem to agree that the songstress should at least stress the difficulties of those seamstresses in Sri Lanka and perhaps even acknowledge that a change needs to be made.

What do you make of this? Should Beyonce be somewhat held accountable? After all, the 34-year-old is the one who has made countless songs about female empowerment and women never settling for less than what they believe they are owed.

[Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images]

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