2024-03-14 23:00:00
© BDRCS GENEVA (ILO News) – The International Labor Organization (ILO) has reached an agreement on the issue of living wages.
The agreement, reached during a Meeting of Experts on wage policies in February, was ratified by the ILO Governing Body at its session on Wednesday, March 13.
The experts agreed that decent wages are essential for economic and social development and to advance social justice. They also play an essential role in reducing poverty and inequality and ensuring a decent and dignified life.
According to experts, the concept of living wage refers to “the salary level necessary to enable a decent standard of living for workers and their families, taking into account the circumstances of the country and calculated for work performed during normal working hours.” .
The agreement establishes that the estimation of living wages should follow a series of principles, including the use of methodologies based on evidence and robust data, consultation with workers’ and employers’ organizations, transparency, public availability and consideration of regional contexts. and local and socioeconomic and cultural realities.
Living wages must be achieved through wage-setting processes in line with ILO principles. This includes strengthening social dialogue and collective bargaining and training wage-setting institutions. The document also recalls that “the needs of workers and their families and economic factors are the two pillars of wage-setting processes.”
“Living wages should not follow a one-size-fits-all approach and should reflect local or regional differences within countries,” says the document outlining the details of the living wage agreement, adding that a sustainable strategy to promote living wages, “must “go beyond the scope of wage-setting mechanisms alone to include broader consideration of factors.”
In the long term there has been a positive global trend in average wages. However, millions of workers around the world – in both the formal and informal economies – continue to earn very low wages compared to the cost of living and live in poverty. These workers and their families cannot afford healthy food, decent housing, medical care or schooling for their children.
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