Our Services
Living Wage Database
Our unique online database provides living wage thresholds for over 200 countries and more than 3500 localities.
Living Wage Gap Analysis
Learn about any wage gaps in your company or suppliers, with results by country, entity or category of workers, and identify strategies for improvement.
Fair Wage Certification
Ensure the highest standards on key wage areas and obtain a label ensuring excellence on wage policy, ensuring long-term wage sustainability.
Become a Certified Living Wage Employer
Through validation of your wage data results, gain international recognition as a global employer paying all its employees - including among of your suppliers - a living wage or more.
Our Approach
Fair Wage is an economically rigorous standard and methodology designed to assess, develop and optimize wage policies.
Going beyond typical sustainability indicators like Living Wage and Equal Salary, and systematically correlating with performance and profitability indicators, the Fair Wage Approach equips you with the data needed to make informed decisions.
The 12 Fair Wage Dimensions
Unlike an audit, the Fair Wage Method focuses its assessment on partnerships through worker and management surveys, identifying root causes, and implementing improvements, including within Human Resources policies and practices.
The Fair Wage standard is defined by 12 dimensions, which cover the full spectrum of wage indicators:
A thirteenth dimension helps to capture how much fair wage practices can be more prominently placed at the core of your company’s overall strategy, especially to strengthen HR and Sustainability policies. This is now a requirement from investors and for the proper good implementation of the new EU directives on corporate sustainability.
Here’s how it works:
LIVING WAGE ONLINE DATABASE
The Fair Wage Network has developed living wage references for every country and geographical region in the world, offering a balanced aggregate living wage amount.
Through a combination of surveys among workers to better capture their family expenditures, and surveys among local markets/shops to get the right prices of basic commodities, the database offers local thresholds that closely match local living costs.
Kept up to date by permanent data collection by a group of researchers, our database contains all thresholds on the living wage and prevailing wages calculated by statistical offices, research institutes and non-governmental organizations around the world, resulting in a very rich set of results which help companies assess wage levels, identify root causes, and put in place any necessary remediation.
Recognized at the international level, and used by major brands and suppliers, our database offers a truly global understanding of living wage standards.
LIVING WAGE GAP ANALYSIS
Our rich database allows the Fair Wage Network to carry out living wage gap analyses for brands and their individual companies/suppliers.
After sharing wage data on a secured and anonymous platform, each company receives an individual report that provides the average living wage gap in the company, the percentage of workers still being paid below the living wage, with breakdowns by gender and employee category.
The Fair Wage Network also provides recommendations on how to close the gap in a balanced, cost-effective and progressive way.
ASSESSMENT
The Fair Wage Approach begins with an assessment of company wage practices through our Fair Wage Framework based on 12 complementary dimensions.
Our economically rigorous method The Fair Wage Approach was developed to give robust wage indicators to identify a comprehensive and overall assessment of an enterprise’s performance in the wage area.
Following the selection of specific business units to assess, Fair Wage Network sends its team to personally visit the company, performing data gathering through anonymous surveys to both management and representative samples of the workforce
FAIR WAGE REPORT
Structured by the indicators for each of the Fair Wage dimensions, with detailed graphs and performance correlations, our Fair Wage Report is designed as a powerful and efficient tool for Human Resources and Sustainability departments.
LOCAL ASSESSMENTS AND AGGREGATE REPORT:
Business unit assessments in different locations can be conducted and analysed in a report aggregated by country, product, or supply chain segment.
REGULAR ASSESSMENTS
Whether used to initiate remediation, or simply as a monitoring interface, Fair Wage Network Assessments scale in value when performed every 1-2 years, as highlighted variations and evolutions can detect pivotal trends.
REMEDIATION
With a network of the world’s best experts on wages, the Fair Wage Network delivers remediation plans and operational implementations for any issues detected.
Our Remediation plans generate remarkable results for all stakeholder groups. Some of these changes can include:
- better payment of a living wage for all workers
- development of wage grids
- implementation of performance bonuses
- non monetary benefits
- reduction of overtime hours without wage loss for the employees
- better payment of overtime hours
- improved health and safety,
- better career promotions and mobility
- lower turnover and absenteeism
- reduction in employee conflicts
- improved human capital
- enhanced productivity
- enhanced profitability
- increase in quality of goods and services
FAIR WAGE VALIDATION & CERTIFICATION – AN ICON OF QUALITY AND ETHICS IN WAGE SETTING
Available to companies with exemplary wage policies and practices, our Fair Wage Label certification is the ultimate recognition of fair wage practices. Both a robust HR tool and a powerful branding statement, the Fair Wage label offers a clear competitive advantage.
Showcase your company’s sustainable wage practices and exemplary wage-setting procedures.
Benefits:
- the Fair Wage label can be incorporated in all goods directly produced by certified companies
- the Fair Wage label can be incorporated in all marketing materials by certified companies
- newly certified companies are publicized in the Fair Wage Network and all relevant communication channels
TIMELINE
1. Certification begins with a preliminary Fair Wage Assessment. Assessments which reveal high-standard practices will automatically mention eligibility for certification.
If additional improvements are required, the Fair Wage Scientific Committee, through reporting and complementary advice, will identify necessary next steps and propose a Fair Wage remediation plan to implement such changes.
2. Once an Assessment Report establishes eligibility, a review of the assessment results is performed by the Fair Wage Scientific Committee.
3. A Fair Wage Label certificate is delivered to companies whose results confirm eligibility.
LABEL USE RIGHTS
Upon certification, a license to use the Fair Wage Label for branding purposes is delivered to the certified company. Label licensing requires a renewal of the certification every two years, through a new Fair Wage assessment.
BUSINESS UNIT CERTIFICATION
Certification does not need to be delivered for the global operations of a company. A company may apply for certification of one or several of its business units, and the certification process will follow for the units selected.
THE FAIR WAGE APPROACH
Fair Wage Network assesses, develops and optimizes wage policies. We integrate 12 dimensions covering the entire spectrum of wage indicators, generating a new standard of excellence with demonstrated impact.
The Fair Wage Network team is internationally recognized as one of the most knowledgeable groups to address wages and related issues at both a company & global supply chain level.
Our unique legitimacy stems from cooperation with all stakeholders and their contribution to international debates on wages.
Focusing on pay systems, wage-fixing and wage-adjustment mechanisms that benefit both the business and the workers, we offer a holistic approach to addressing wages.
Take your wage standards to
the next level.
Contact us to explore which of our services is right for you.