Since the mid 1990s, the rapid growing garment factories around Phnom Penh have provided many employment opportunities for young female women from rural areas. Previous research confirmed that workers who left their rural work to take up new jobs in the garment factory could earn higher wages. Moreover, part of their earnings from garment work was used to improve their family’s standard of living for those still residing in the countryside. These studies have only partly covered the actual workers’ standard of living. Due to the lack of current studies that considered this issue in any detail, this research attempts to study the workers’ daily living activities and their perceptions toward standard of living. The research also aims to figure out the important factors that mostly affect the workers’ standard of living and discuss how these indicators could be improved.

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