SDSN Bolivia collaborates with Global Living Wage Coalition to measure living wages worldwide

By: SDSN Bolivia

In early May, SDSN Bolivia signed an agreement with the Global Living Wage Coalition (GLWC) to help calculate, publish and update living wage benchmarks using the Anker methodology.

Achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals depends critically on all workers around the world earning a living wage, not only because remuneration for work activity is the main source of income for most people in the world, but also because prosperous societies depend on citizens free from exploitation and destitution.

The concept of a living wage refers to a wage that would allow a typical working family to live a modest but decent life, including access to a nutritious diet and minimally acceptable housing. A living wage should also be sufficient to allow the family to live together, rather than some members having to migrate and separate to supplement family income.

The SDSN Bolivia team believes that objective, standardized and widely accepted comparison standards are the first step toward achieving wages that would lift all workers out of poverty. Updated standards can help negotiate a fair distribution of the value generated within global supply chains, ensuring that everyone involved in production, processing, distribution, etc., earns at least a living wage.

Therefore, a collaboration has been initiated with Global Living Wage Coalition (https://www.globallivingwage.org/) to help calculate, publish and update living wage comparison standards for different locations around the world using the Anker Living Wage Methodology.

In the coming years, the team will be responsible for systematically updating the living wage benchmarking standards and will conduct a series of studies in Latin America.

For more information, please visit www.sdsnbolivia.org/proyectos or https://www.globallivingwage.org/.