5th April 2024
Bonsucro welcomes the news that the International Labour Organization (ILO) has agreed on a definition for living wage. The agreement was made at the end of February 2024, when the ILO held a ‘Meeting of Experts’ to produce guidance on wage policies, including living wage. The agreement was subsequently endorsed by ILO’s governing body on 13 March.
A living wage has been defined as, “the wage level necessary to afford a decent standard of living for workers and their families, taking into account country circumstances and calculated for work performed during normal hours.”
Clarifications and guidelines on living wage
The document outlining the details of the living wage agreement states that, “Living wages should not be a one-size-fits-all approach and should reflect local or regional differences within countries.” It also mentioned that a sustainable strategy to promote living wages, “should go beyond the realm of wage-setting mechanisms alone and include a broader consideration of factors.”
It is clear from conversations and consultations with Bonsucro members, that a one-size fits all approach to living wage is not feasible in sugarcane production. Production methods and the way that sugarcane derivatives are traded vary significantly across the world. We are pleased to see that the need for local and regional differences has been formally acknowledged by the ILO. We believe this will support our conversations and efforts to improve wages in the sugarcane sector.
The ILO agreement also says that living wage estimations should: use evidence-based methodologies and robust data, consultations with workers’ and employers’ organisations, be transparent and publicly available, and consider regional and local contexts including cultural realities.
Bonsucro’s work on living wage
The idea of being collaborative, using robust data and adopting evidence-based methodologies aligns with Bonsucro’s approach to living wage. We have always consulted our members on how to approach the topic of wages in the sector, ensuring we hear from different actors in the supply chain, based in different countries.
We are now starting data collection using tested methodologies. In version 5.2 of the Bonsucro Production Standard, we have an aspirational indicator (2.2.6) on benchmarking prevailing wages against the living wage. To facilitate this, we have partnered with IDH to test its Salary Matrix tool within Bonsucro certification. This tool was developed for other sustainability initiatives and supports wage data collection and assessments against living wage benchmarks.
To facilitate thorough testing of the Salary Matrix Tool, we provided training to our staff, the Bonsucro Living Wage Working Group, and our Licensed Certification Bodies. This is to ensure that the infrastructure to collect, verify, and analyse wage data is in place. Four of our members have signed up to pilot the tool in Southern Africa, Brazil, and Central America. The tests are expected to start in April. Following the pilots, our Living Wage Working Group will discuss recommendations for both producer and auditor guidance for indicator 2.2.6. We will also work on incentives to drive the implementation of this aspirational indicator.
Bonsucro is a member of the Global Living Wage Coalition (GLWC) which has published a joint statement between its members to commend the ILO’s recognition of the importance of living wage and its efforts to advance action towards the provision of an adequate living wage for all workers.
Further information from the International Labor Organization
In addition to setting a definition of living wage, the ILO meeting of experts also worked to outline the concept of the living wage, identify principles that estimations of living wages should follow, review current living wages initiatives, give guidance for the operationalization of living wages, and provide recommendations for future action by the Office.”
The full ILO report can be found on its website.
Find out more about our work on living wage.
