Companies take action towards living wages
Today IDH announced with global companies Aldi Nord, Aldi Sud, Eosta, Fyffes, Fairphone, L’Oréal, Schijvens, Superunie, Taylors of Harrogate, and Unilever to take action towards living wages.
In a joint Call to Action: Better Business through Better Wages, they call on other companies to do the same.In the Call to Action, the group of companies express that the old business model looked to low wages as a profitability driver. The new model sees well-paid workers as an integral part of a profitable, sustainable and resilient business. A living wage provides workers and their families with a decent standard of living. A living wage is enough to provide for their family’s basic needs for food, water, clothing, housing, education, transportation and healthcare.[quote index="3"/]
Pervasive social inequality harms prosperity of economies and societies. The past year has undoubtedly widened the social divide. Now businesses have an opportunity to change the way their business models operate to benefit wider society, breaking the cycle of poverty and strengthening the foundations of the global economy, while driving business growth.
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IDH Roadmap on Living Wages
The IDH Roadmap on Living Wages develops and scales solutions for workers in the global supply chain for a living wage. The companies that joined the Call to Action will work with the Roadmap to develop and scale solutions for workers in global supply chains with the ultimate goal of a living wage.Specific actions include:- Identifying living wage gaps in our own operations and supply chains, with a specific focus on the gender pay gap.
- Establishing shared frameworks with supply chain partners to close the gap, with concrete
- Joining in multi-stakeholder partnerships that target areas with large living wage gaps.
- Building awareness and understanding among consumers of how they contribute to better
- Implementing practical solutions to remove barriers and close living wage gaps and share costs in an equitable way.
- Supporting freedom of association with robust social dialogue and wage setting mechanisms.
- Adopting sustainable procurement and trading practices, including living wage requirements as part of commercial specifications, sourcing policies and/or contractual clauses/purchasing
- Ensuring that value created actually reaches workers.
- Transparently reporting on progress towards a living wage.
- Sharing learnings, challenges and solutions to inform and elevate all efforts as we find new pathways for reaching living wages.