Living Wage

Definition

Living WageA wage sufficient to meet a worker's basic needs in their location.

A living wage covers food, housing, transport, healthcare, education and a small discretionary margin for a worker and their dependants in a specific city or region. It is typically 30–200% higher than the legal minimum wage in garment-producing countries.

The Anker Methodology and the Global Living Wage Coalition publish benchmarks. Fair Wear Foundation, Fair Trade USA, and Fairtrade International audit suppliers against living-wage progress. A "fair wages" claim with no benchmark cited is usually paying minimum wage.