"Limited progress on living wages, report"

The 2023-2024 annual report from the Platform Living Wage Financials (PLWF) shows that while many brands in the garment sector have committed to multistakeholder initiatives addressing living wages, there remains limited evidence of real-world impact.

As the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) deadline looms, the report, ‘Turning Commitments into Action: Defining the Future for a Living Wage’, also stresses the urgency for companies to move beyond policy commitments to measurable actions.

The report cites the latest ILO Global Wage Report 2024-25 which estimates that a typical worker in a high-income country earns a wage that is more than 16 times higher than the wage of a typical worker in a low-income country.

The same report estimates that 10% of the world’s 1.8 billion wage workers – around 180 million people – earn less than about $250 per month, equivalent to a little more than $8 per day

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The report found that nearly three-quarters of assessed companies disclosed the names and locations of their tier one suppliers, indicating progress in supply chain transparency. Most brands are also active participants in multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as ACT and Fair Wear Foundation, aimed at advancing living wages.

However, the report also found that only a few companies have demonstrated measurable impact. For example, while responsible purchasing policies are increasingly common, there is limited disclosure on whether these efforts have translated into meaningful wage increases for workers.

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