WageMap invites you to participate in the public consultation for the Living Wage Reference Standard.

Consultation Audience

Date	Audience	Registration Link	Time	Region
17.10.24	Corporate	Register here	14:00 BST / 09:00 EDT	Europe, Latin America & Caribbean, North America
22.10.24	Workers, Civil Society & Government	Register here	14:00 BST / 09:00 EDT	Europe, Latin America & Caribbean, North America
31.10.24	Corporate	Register here	07:00 GMT / 18:00 AET	East Asia & Pacific, Europe & Central Asia, Middle East & North Africa, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa
06.11.24	Workers, Civil Society & Government	Register here	07:00 GMT / 18:00 AET	East Asia & Pacific, Europe & Central Asia, Middle East & North Africa, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa
13.11.24	Corporate	Register here	19:00 GMT / 14:00 EST	Latin America & Caribbean, North America
20.11.24	Workers, Civil Society & Government	Register here	19:00 GMT / 14:00 EST	Latin America & Caribbean, North America

View this page on a computer screen or download the pdf versionfor a full view of this table.

What is the Living Wage Reference Standard?

The purpose of the Living Wage Reference Standard is to serve as a ‘North Star’, compelling organisations, including WageMap consortium members and other living wage data providers and implementation organisations, to continually strive for improvement in their living wage calculation methodologies.

The overarching goal is to create external confidence in living wage estimates by having a stakeholder-consulted standard. This standard will be agreed upon by the consortium members, allowing users to understand international comparability and local specificity to confidently implement consistent living wages around the world.

The Scope of the Standard Will Establish:

• Categories of costs contained within and practices for calculating living wage estimates
• Effective methods of collecting and verifying reliable cost-of-living data
• Harmonisation of consistent technical utilisation of definitions and data architecture

To learn more about the Living Wage Reference Standard, please see the slides and recording from the webinar held in August.

Public Consultation Period

WageMap is following the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Sustainability Systems throughout the process of developing the Living Wage Reference Standard. WageMap is committed to an inclusive and transparent review process and is seeking input from all stakeholders impacted by the implementation of the Standard.

There will be two rounds of public consultations, the first running from 17th October to 20th November 2024 and the second during February/March 2025. The consultations will be held across three time zones to ensure broad participation. They will also be split into two groups: Corporate and Workers/Civil Society/Government.

The draft Living Wage Reference Standard will be available for public review and comment from 3rd October to 29th November 2024. All comments received during each consultation period will be publicly available, and WageMap will explain how each material issue raised was considered during the refinement of the Standard.

Who Should Participate?

• Workers, Civil Society & Government: Unions, worker representative organisations, living wage projects, national CSOs, I/NGOs, certification bodies, labour rights experts, policymakers, etc.
• Corporate: Multinationals, small & medium businesses, buyers, suppliers, investors, trade intermediaries, etc.

For questions, please contact Shaheen Hashmat at shaheen.hashmat@livingwage.org.uk or Emma Giloth at egiloth@bsr.org.

On August 22nd 2024, the webinar “Towards a Living Wage Reference Standard” took place. We would like to send a special thanks to all of our wonderful speakers who joined the session to share their work and insights:

• Elva Lopez Mourelo, International Labour Organisation
• Megan Galvin, UN Global Compact
• Anne Coleman, Ontario Living Wage Network
• Eyüp Özer, Turkish United Metalworkers Union, Birleşik Metal İş
• Fiona Dragstra, WageIndicator Foundation, part of the WageMap consortium
• Michelle Murray, Living Wage for US, part of the WageMap consortium
• Shaheen Hashmat, Living Wage Foundation, part of the WageMap consortium

Recording and links:

• Please find the recording from the session and the slides in Resources.
• To keep up to date with the latest on WageMap, please see our LinkedIn.
• Links shared during the webinar by UNGC:
• UNGC Forward Faster
• List of Companies that have committed to Forward Faster Targets
• Leaders Summit
• Living Wage Analysis Tool
• Decent Work Toolkit for Sustainable Procurement
• Improving Wages to Advance Decent Work microsite
• Forward Faster video can be found here

Follow up from the Q&A session:

We will be taking the comments and questions from the Q&A discussion away to help us to refine the plans for the upcoming stakeholder consultations across October and November (more information to follow on these).

The questions that we weren't able to answer during the session will be answered on in Resources soon.

On August 22nd 2024, the webinar “Towards a Living Wage Reference Standard” will take place, hosted by WageMap and with speakers from UN Global Compact and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

About this event:

Following its February meeting of experts on wage policies, the International Labour Organization (ILO) now has a mandate to engage with living wage initiatives to promote alignment with ILO principles. They will also promote outcomes from the meeting in the multilateral system and through partnerships with other UN bodies, including the UN Global Compact.

WageMap intends to closely align its work with ILO guidance and will also share more information about how this is reflected in the upcoming WageMap consultation process, due to begin in September 2024. There will also be the opportunity to hear from the ILO and UN Global Compact representatives on next steps of their work.

Agenda:

1. Next steps from UNGC and the ILO
2. Why a Living Wage Reference Standard?
3. WageMap consultation process
4. Scope of the Living Wage Reference Standard
5. Q&A discussion

This event is for civil society, workers' organisations, NGOs, data providers, and living wage focused projects and programmes. To help ensure that we are reaching all relevant organisations, please share this invitation with your own network as well.

We will communicate with corporate organisations about the consultation process separately.

We will follow up with a more detailed briefing ahead of the session.

Event details:

Register: Click this link.

When: Thursday 22nd August, 14:00-16:00 BST / 15:00-17:00 CEST / 09:00-11:00 EDT The webinar will be recorded and shared

Speakers:

• Anne Coleman, Director of Programs and Services, Ontario Living Wage Network
• Eyüp Özer, Turkish United Metalworkers Union (Birleşik Metal İş)
• Megan Galvin, Labour Rights & Decent Work, UN Global Compact
• Elva López Mourelo, Project Manager on Setting Adequate Wages, ILO
• Michelle Murray, CEO and Founder, Living Wage for US – Leads ISEAL Living Wage Reference Standard process
• Shaheen Hashmat, Head of Global Living Wage, Living Wage Foundation – Leads WageMap Community engagement
• Fiona Dragstra, Director, WageIndicator Foundation

If you wish to attend, please register or forward it to a colleague. We look forward to having you there.

Dear Brands and Organizations,

Are you ready to impact the Living Wage landscape? WageMap extends an invitation for you to join us as a launch partner, positioning yourself at the forefront of transforming our approach to attaining living wages for workers globally.

By partnering with WageMap, you'll gain access to a myriad of benefits, including:

💡𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝: Help develop a reference standard which will assess, align and improve existing living wage benchmarking methodologies.

🌟 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Position your organization as a leader in promoting fairness and transparency in the workplace.

🌏 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚. Access the ‘wage map’: a database of the most representative living wage data per geography.

🎓 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐛: Elevate your understanding with workshops, relevant references, and links to essential resources on closing the living wage gap.

WageMap is a coalition among six leading organizations in the living wage space – WageIndicator, Living Wage For US, Living Wage Foundation UK, BSR, NewForesight, and Loughborough University. Our mission is to provide structure and clarity in the debates around Living Wage and help companies facilitate the implementation of their Living Wage commitments across their supply chains.

Concretely, WageMap aims to: 1. Establish a Living Wage Reference Standard following the ISEAL standard-setting process. 2. Provide access to Globally Comparable, Locally Specific Benchmarks. 3. trengthen implementation support to guide the private sector in their Living Wage journey. 4. Build and expand the global movement around Living Wage.

Don't miss this opportunity to be part of a transformative initiative. Join us as a launch partner and together, let's pave the way for a brighter, more equitable future!

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐉𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫, 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 (joost.backer@newforesight.com) 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐌𝐚𝐩.

On Wednesday April 24th at 4:00 - 5:00 PM CEST we will host our very first WageMap Webinar:

𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐚𝐠𝐞 –𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐖𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐌𝐚𝐩, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮.

This event is for all practitioners supporting the achievement of living wages for workers globally. hashtag#WageMap has kicked off the ISEAL Living Wage Reference Standard-setting process. Join us on the mission towards a single database of globally comparable, contextually specific living wage benchmark data!

𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚:
1️⃣ Introduction to WageMap: plan for 2024.
2️⃣ Consultations on the ISEAL Living Wage Reference Standard: How can you
contribute?
3️⃣ Launch Partner Spotlight: The Hershey Company.
4️⃣ Call to action: What does Launch Partnership mean for you.
5️⃣ Q&A

Sign up via the following link: https://share.hsforms.com/1Wgz6UV8-QKa1zVfsjCsiRg1z1n9

Hope to see you there!

This week, WageMap attends the 4th Global Conference of the World Banana Forum, including a side event on livingwage at the FAO in Rome.

Over 600,000 workers operate in the banana industry, growing, plucking and packing over 120 million MT per year. Most workers earn well below a Living Wage and face tough working conditions.

Data-driven action is needed. WageMap contributes by creating a single database of globally comparable, locally specific living wage benchmarks based on a shared living wage reference standard that acknowledges existing methodologies.

We kick-off creating this standard this month, following the ISEAL Standard-Setting Code. ‘We’ means the consortium partners BSR, Living Wage Foundation, Loughborough University, NewForesight, Living Wage For US Inc, and WageIndicator Foundation. It also includes our corporate Launch Partners and Members, which will become known soon.

NB: Deadline to become a Launch Partner is April 5th. Interested in learning more? Contact us via LinkedIn or send an email to PMO Joost Backer, joost.backer@newforesight.com.

With Living Wage becoming central to discussions around decent work and the sustainable development goals, we're excited to see that one of our founding members, the WageIndicator Foundation is making their Living Wage estimates publicly available as of today!

This is a big step in the pursuit of labour market transparency, fair compensations, and our shared journey to a better future.

You can read their publication via the following link: https://wageindicator.org/salary/living-wage/workers-trade-unions