Decent Work and Wages

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Ensuring decent work in global value chains

Over a billion workers worldwide earn less than they need to afford a decent standard of living. In addition, almost 3 million people die from work-related causes each year. IDH aims to break this cycle of inequality by establishing fair and safe working conditions in global value chains.  

Leading companies around the world are working to protect human rights in their supply chains and to ensure decent work. We understand these ambitions are not without numerous challenges, from lack of market transparency to inadequate wage setting mechanisms.   

Drawing on global insights and proven solutions, we work with you to ensure the safety of workplaces in your supply chain and enable equal opportunities for men and women, worker representation and fair remuneration. This will bring business benefits such as increased productivity and reduced employee turnover as well as improved recognition and growth in market share. 

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Our offering

Guidance on closing living wage gaps

Enabling a living wage – sufficient remuneration to afford a decent standard of living for a worker and their family – is of central importance to our Decent Work agenda. Whether one-to-one or through public-private partnerships - our dedicated team supports you in measuring and reducing living wage gaps through concrete guides and tools.  

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Keeping gender equality front of mind

Gender equality cuts across all our Impact Agendas – including Decent Work. Economically empowering women workers and ensuring equal opportunities brings broader social benefits.

Gender EquityGender Equity

Understanding the challenges of living wage

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Roadmap

A roadmap to secure living wages in your supply chain

Together with our partners, we’ve designed a roadmap with five clear steps and practical tools to help companies secure sustainable living wages for their workers. From measuring living wage gaps to concrete guidance on how to take action, explore the roadmap, reach out to supply chain partners, and start taking steps.  

Roadmap on Living WagesRoadmap on Living Wages

Tools to secure living wages in supply chains

Our Living Wage roadmap provides step by step guidance to identify, calculate, and address wage gaps in your supply chain. You can also directly access these tools here, from our Action Guide to our Salary Matrix.

Living Wage ToolsLiving Wage Tools
Tool

Salary Matrix

Calculate your living wage gaps by comparing the total remuneration of your workers to regional benchmarks.

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Tool

Living Wage Action Guide

Get practical guidance on what you can do to close living wage gaps and where you need to collaborate with others.

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Tool

Living Wage Benchmark Finder

Find credible living wage benchmarks, based on 9 criteria for quality, from every country you source from.

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Decent Work initiatives in action

Discover our flagship initiatives to ensure Decent Work by transforming sector governance and business practices to deliver field-level impact.

Program

Life and Building Safety (LABS)

Promoting scalable avenues for achieving safer working conditions for workers in apparel, footwear, accessories and home-textiles sectors.

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Program

Banana retail commitment

Commitment of Dutch, Belgian, German, and UK retailers to reduce gaps and work towards living wages for workers in the banana sector.

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Collection & distribution collection mechanism pilot in tea

Pilot in which tea brands pay a living wage differential in proportion to their sourced volumes to improve the livelihoods of tea workers.

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Take the next step in your decent work commitment

Contact our Decent Work experts for fresh insights and actionable plans to secure living wages in the workplace.

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