Today, FWF joins European governments, brands, trade unions and labour NGOs in a conference on living wages in international supply chains. Keynote speakers include the Dutch and German ministers for development cooperation.
During the conference, FWF’s living wage expert Anne Lally will present FWF’s work to date, seeking answers to the main questions that have impeded action on living wages for so long. FWF’s presentation will focus on what it calls ‘Living Wage Engineering’ addressing key questions, such as: ‘By how much do manufacturing costs increase if workers’ current wages are raised to a living wage?’
In the presentation, FWF’s reviews the progress in developing models that can help brands answer this question in various factories, regions, and countries. FWF’s initial work on models has also aimed to help predict the possible impact of living wages on retail price. The session will conclude with a discussion about potentially effective methods for ensuring that any price increases actually reach workers.
