Giving workers a decent standard of living

Interested in learning about a specific region's living wage? Utilizing the Anker Methodology, we've conducted studies all over the world to estimate an area's realistic living wage.

Use the map to select a regional living wage, or view benchmark reports by country:


We have recently changed the way we update our living wage estimates. Read more.

53

Countries

Number of countries we work in
55

Complete

Number of completed benchmarks
13

In-Progress

Number of studies in-progress

What is a living wage?

Remuneration received for a standard work week by a worker in a particular [time and] place sufficient to afford a decent standard of living include food, water, housing, education, healthcare, transport, clothing and other essential needs including provision for unexpected events.
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How is it calculated?

The Global Living Wage Coalition supports the use of the Anker Methodology for estimating living wages globally. This methodology, developed by renowned living wage experts Richard Anker and Martha Anker uses a combination of primary and secondary data to create highly accurate, robust living wage estimates that are transparent, internationally comparable, and locally specific.
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What Makes our Methodology Unique?

This manual, authored by Richard Anker and Martha Anker, describes a new methodology to measure the decent but basic standard of living in different countries, and how much workers need to earn to support themselves and their families. This information allows researchers to estimate comparable living wages around the world and determine gaps between living wages and prevailing wages, even in countries with limited secondary data.

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Keep updated with the Coalition's work

Sign up for our mailing list to keep updated with the Coalition's work and receive benchmark reports as they come out.

Case Studies

  • Case Study

    Garment Industry in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, India

    Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu is an important garment-manufacturing city in India with a long history of tense relations around wages. SAI began working with government, employers, and workers in Tiruppur in 2016 to foster collaborative conversation on practical steps to achieve a living wage for the city. This is an ongoing initiative; SAI is seeking participants from Tiruppur’s garment industry and civil sector and from international organizations and companies with interests in the Tiruppur garment industry for stakeholder workshops in 2019. Read about the initiative and learn how you can help advance wages in Tiruppur.

    Continue Reading…

  • Case Study

    East Africa Flower Industry

    This programme aims to promote Living Wages for workers in flowers and plants by producing research on living wage and wage setting in Ethiopia and Kenya. The programme aims to build awareness regarding wage issues, mutual trust required for collaboration and acceptance of the need for Living Wage among supply chain actors.

    Continue Reading…

  • Case Study

    Bananas in Ghana and Ecuador

    In both Ecuador and Ghana, bananas continue to be a core commodity for income generation. This pilot project provides a powerful opportunity to determine the gap between actual wages and living wages, and ultimately establish a living wage benchmark in each country using the Anker methodology.

    Continue Reading…

  • Case Study

    Rural Malawi

    The Malawi Tea 2020 Programme is an ambitious, action-oriented coalition of Malawian tea producers, trade unions, major international tea buyers, relevant certification standards, NGOs, and donors.

    Continue Reading…

By Industry

Living wage is based on cost of living in a specific geography. Therefore, living wage benchmarks are applicable to all workers regardless of sector, industry, or job type. At the same time, many geographies are dominated by a few sectors, and some sector platforms have developed significant living wage activities which cut across several different geographies or countries. The Global Living Wage Coalition members are also engaged more actively with certain sectors. As such, most living wage benchmark reports reference sectors which either dominate the landscape or were instrumental in realizing completion of the study.

The Global Living Wage Coalition offers content by industry for easy reference on all living wage benchmarks, case studies, and other resources that are available in geographies that are important to that sector.

By Country

Living wage is based on cost of living in a specific geography. Often times, the geographic scope is at a sub-country level, and typically there are differences between rural and urban or peri-urban areas. As such, there can easily be more than one living wage benchmark per country.

The Global Living Wage Coalition offers content organized by country for quick access to the relevant living wage benchmarks, case studies, and related resources which may be of interest to a wide range of stakeholders.

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The Global Living Wage Coalition delivers knowledge and information to drive effective action toward a decent standard of living for working people and their families worldwide.



The Global Living Wage Coalition is led by:

And works in collaboration with other supporting members of the GLWC Action Network.