Global Living Wage Coalition

The Global Living Wage Coalition brings together six of the world's most influential sustainability standards to improve wage levels in certified supply chains. The topic of living wage has exploded into public consciousness, from fast food workers in the US to global clothing companies in Bangladesh. A living wage allows a worker to cover the essential needs of their family, with a little extra Òjust in case." The legal minimum wage too often falls far short of this concept, leaving workers around the world mired in poverty. Living wage is a complex topic, but is increasingly seen as a fundamental human right. Sustainability standards define what is responsible practice and drive change in businesses. And standards are already working with several hundred brands, buyers and retailers that need to be part of wage discussions around the world. As such, sustainability standards can provide a great deal of influence in the living wage debate. ISEAL members Fairtrade International, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), GoodWeave, Sustainable Agriculture Network/Rainforest Alliance (SAN/RA), and UTZ Certified, along with Social Accountability International (SAI), have made a joint commitment and launched an unprecedented collaboration that will scale up their impacts in living wage. The group, called the Global Living Wage Coalition, recognises that living wage is crucial to their individual certification programmes and they have agreed to a shared approach for measuring living wage. The long term goal and shared mission of Global Living Wage Coalition is to see improvements in workers' conditions, including wage levels, in the farms, factories and supply chains participating in our respective certification systems and beyond. ISEAL is facilitating this coalition and welcomes the interest of organisations that can help us put in place the conditions, partnerships, and structures to support the group's long-term goal to see wages in certified supply chains increase towards living wage.