Backing up your living wage and income project with quality data 

We ended 2023 in great style. The Living Wage & Income Lab’s final session of the year was a compilation of valuable lessons, tools, and resources to take home. From ISEAL’s recently published document, Making Credible Living Wage Claims: A Framework to Guide Practice Claims, to practical insights shared by the WageIndicator Foundation, FNV Mondiaal, and Unilever, and a vivid illustration of what sustainable promises look like in action.

If you missed the session, you can read its highlights on the Living Wage & Income Lab website. These include examples of collaborative efforts among data providers, companies, and trade unions, with insights from project design and policy implementation to making robust trustworthy, robust claims. The panel concluded with a crucial call to action for 2024: progress over perfection. Let’s join forces to make living wage and incomes tools and resources accessible to accelerate progress.

Circling back to what credible claims look like in practice, the session gave participants a sneak peek of Fairtrade Original‘s storytelling interface. The Dutch brand is leveraging Fairfood’s traceability tool, Trace, to render their Ugandan supply chain transparent and effectively communicate their claims. On one single page, buyers can easily check evidence of their organic and Fairtrade certified coffee, along with data supporting an even more ambitious claim: farmers being paid a Living Income Reference Price.

The Fairfood team is proud of this platform that enables participants to contribute their expertise, whether from the panel or the engaged audience, and inspire others in realising living wags and incomes ambitions. As poverty persists and farmers are pushed out of business, achieving a sustainable transition in a fair way remains our top priority.

We have something special coming on February 7th. Make sure you’re subscribed to the Living Wage & Income Lab newsletter to stay on the loop!