In many developing countries, women may be less mobile than men and unable to move to
other industries where general working conditions and salaries are better and may thus
experience greater downward pressures on general working conditions and salaries. A
2012 World Bank study on women’s salaries in the clothing industry in Cambodia and
Sri Lanka found their wages dropped immediately following the MFA phase-out. Although
wages improved later, they never regained their pre-MFA phase-out levels. In Cambodia,
women earned 26.6 per cent less than men in 1996, 13.3 per cent less in 2004–08, and
11.5 per cent less in 2009. In Sri Lanka, women earned 40 per cent less than men in 2002,
55 per cent less than men in 2006, and 44 per cent less than men in 2008. 37 A study
covering over 100 clothing factories in Asia (including Sri Lanka) during the