Forida is a busy working mum, who juggles a full-time job with raising her toddler son.

She and her husband live in a capital city and support his mother, who lives with them and helps with childcare.

Her situation has a universal resonance, in that she could be anyone's sister, wife, mother or aunt. But there's a difference: Forida earns just 35c/h making clothes for Target Australia, H&M and other global brands.

Her home is a hot, cramped and mosquito-ridden slum shared with six other families in Dhaka, Bangladesh. They struggle to pay rent and get enough food.

"If we were paid a little more money, then I could one day send my son to school. We could live happily, we could lead a better life," Forida said.

It would take a Bangaldeshi garment worker more than 4000 years to earn the same wage as that of a Australian clothing retailer CEO. (Oxfam)

Kmart and H&M are among a range of brands implicated in the report. (Oxfam)

The plight of women who make clothes for leading Australian brands like Kmart, Target, Big W, H&M, Cotton On has been thrust into the spotlight by a new Oxfam Australia report, released today.

While leading retailers are enjoying record profits in Australia’s $27 billion fashion industry, just 2 percent of the tag price of each piece of clothing made in Bangladesh goes into the pockets of the workers who made it, according to the What She Makes report.

Other women featured in the report include 25-year-old Anju, who makes clothes in a factory for Katies, Millers, City Chic and Rivers. Paid 37c/h, she cannot afford rent, enough food nor to keep her two young daughters at home.

“What the report does is to really bring the faces and the lives of these women very close to our lives,” Oxfam CEO Dr Helen Szoke told 9NEWS.

“If you are a mother or if you have sisters or if you have aunties, these are the sorts of women who are actually spending many long hours, many days a week, making clothes that we buy in the shops.”

Oxfam is leading the call for Australian clothing retailers to offer garment workers a living wage. (Oxfam)

The report, which draws on research conducted by Deloitte Access Economics, calls on big Australian brands to pay garment workers a living wage. If the brands passed on this extra cost to consumers, it would only increase the price tag by 1 percent.

“We are talking about a minute amount – if you are talking about a $10 t-shirt, that would be 10c,” Dr Szoke said.

“These are actually amounts that could be absorbed by (fashion and clothing) companies.

“I think Australians would be astonished to know that with such a small change in the adjustment of the price or of what is actually paid by the garment industry, it can make a real impact on the lives of women who aren’t even able to get out of the cycle of poverty, despite the fact they are working seven days a week.”

Currently most profit from clothing goes to factory owners, wholesalers and retailers. It would take a Bangladeshi garment worker more than 4000 years to earn the amount a CEO of an Australian clothing retailer.

(Oxfam)

Dr Szoke said consumers should not boycott brands but rather put pressure on them via social media.

Oxfam is launching a live company tracker on its website to publicly monitor Australia’s leading fashion retailers, including Kmart, Big W, Bonds, Cotton On and Just Jeans.

“This is not about consumers being made to feel guilty – this is about empowering consumers to ensure that this difference can be made for the predominately women who are working countries to make the clothes that we are wearing today,” Dr Szoke said.

Oxfam hopes its report will help bridge the disconnect between Australian consumers and workers at the bottom of the supply chain.

(Oxfam)