STEP Standard

Label STEP’s industry-leading 10-point fair trade Standard provides the broadest and strictest labor, health, safety, social, and environmental rules in the carpet industry.

STEP works holistically to adjust the underlying realities of the industry that incite common issues such as child labour—because simply removing children from looms does not eliminate the problem. STEP pursues fair trade solutions that consider all social, ecological and commercial concerns. We also believe in collaboration, encouraging and requiring all players within the handmade carpet industry to cooperatively nurture an industry that is healthy, responsible, and sustainable.

STEP monitors up to 90 compliance measures, including the protection of workers’ health and safety; the payment of fair wages; the prohibition of child labour, discrimination, harassment, and forced labour; the right to collective bargaining; and more. Not all countries or facilities are alike, so the fair trade rules embedded in the STEP Standard are customised to individual production circumstances—from loom workshops and factories to home-based work. If a non-compliance situation is found, local STEP representatives will initiate cooperative corrective action to improve conditions, step by step.

Only dealers (importers, wholesalers, designers, and retailers) who commit to the STEP Standard for fair trade throughout their entire line of handmade carpets are considered a Certified Label STEP Fair Trade Partner and are allowed to use the distinguished STEP label.