The Frank Co. launches tool to price living wage gaps into fashion orders

The Frank Co. has launched Cost to Close, a new feature inside its supply chain platform The Chain that turns factory wage data into per-garment and per-order cost figures. The move gives fashion brands a direct way to factor living wage gaps into buying decisions, pricing and supplier discussions.

Why it matters: - Fashion brands often track wage and living wage data, but that information usually sits outside the buying process. - Cost to Close puts worker pay into the same commercial conversation as product cost, order volume and factory pricing. - The tool gives buyers a dollar-and-cents view of what closing a living wage gap would cost, instead of leaving worker impact as a separate sustainability metric.

What happened: - The Frank Co. launched Cost to Close, a new solution for fashion brands. - The tool is built into The Frank Co.'s supply chain transparency platform, The Chain. - Cost to Close translates factory wage data into the cost of closing living wage gaps at the garment and order level. - The company is based in Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom. - The launch was announced on August 24, 2026.

The details: - Cost to Close connects factory payroll data with product and order information. - The system converts a factory's monthly wage gap into a wage gap per minute. - It then applies the labour minutes required to make a garment. - The result is a living wage uplift per garment. - Buyers can multiply that figure by order quantity to estimate the total adjustment required. - The Frank Co. said the need became clear through work with brands and suppliers. - In one deep dive on a supplier in Bangladesh, payroll data showed around 1 in 3 workers earned below the statutory minimum wage across a six-month window, despite prior social compliance checks. - A case study covered an anonymized global fashion brand with factories across multiple countries. - Payroll-level data from 25 factories showed 21 recorded negative real wage growth in 2025. - Negative real wage growth means workers' purchasing power fell even when nominal wages rose. - In two factories in Europe, nominal wage increases topped 40%. - At one factory, real wages rose 16.8%. - At another, real wages fell 18.4%. - Both factories were operating in the same inflationary environment. - In one example, closing the living wage gap for an oversized cotton tee required a £0.50 uplift per garment. - For a £2,500 FOB order, the total cost to close the gap was £50. - That represented a 2% increase in total FOB value. - A separate pilot brand tracked payroll across three factories that made most of its orders over three years. - All three factories eventually moved above the local living wage benchmark. - The factories had previously sat close to the statutory minimum. - Real wage growth at the most closely tracked factory exceeded 25% year on year. - The biggest gains went to the lowest-paid workers. - One factory said, “Seeing the gap, not just a pass or fail, was in itself valuable to us.” - The Chain ties wage data to the relevant production date and factory. - The platform also provides worker impact information, living wage benchmarking and confidence scoring. - Suppliers can have wage data flow into the buying process without extra data submissions or audits. - In one order for 400 units with a 14-minute standard minute value, Cost to Close surfaced a £0.05 uplift per garment before the brand confirmed the order. - In a second order from a factory already meeting the benchmark, the tool returned £0.00. - The Frank Co. says Cost to Close is available through The Chain. - Brands can book an introductory call and provide a sample order to see how the tool works. - The company also lists info@thefrankco.com and thefrankco.com as contact points.

Between the lines: - The product shifts wage transparency from reporting to purchasing. - That could make living wage improvements easier to discuss during sourcing, when small per-unit changes can add up across an order. - The examples also show that headline wage increases can hide declining purchasing power when inflation is high. - By tying wage data to a specific order, The Frank Co. is trying to make labor impact measurable at the point of decision rather than after the fact.

What's next: - Fashion brands can use a sample order to test Cost to Close inside The Chain. - The Frank Co. is positioning the tool as part of broader supplier, wage and environmental transparency workflows. - The company says the goal is to help brands factor living wage impact into buying and sustainability processes.