CCC publishes a Living Wage Roadmap
Specifically, this wage:
- applies to all workers, which means that there is no salary below the living wage level in the same workplace,
- must be earned in a standard work week of no more than 48 hours,
- is the basic net salary, after taxes and (where applicable) before bonuses, allowances or overtime,
- covers the basic needs of a worker and their dependents,
- and includes an additional 10% of the costs for basic needs as discretionary income.
CCC underlines the importance of a living wage being a family wage, and not an individual wage, regardless of the average number of household incomes per country or region, to ensure that it accounts for unpaid care work, often carried out by women.
Living wage calculations that work with the average number of income earners per household do not account for this, and they accept that households with fewer incomes than the average therefore earn below the living wage.
Living wage calculations focus on the cost of living. Such calculations explicitly exclude concepts and methodologies related to the productivity or economic capacity of employers.
All companies have the responsibility to respect human rights. Brands and retailers sourcing garments bear a particular responsibility for ensuring that their policies and purchasing practices enable the payment of a living wage. Their influence in the supply chain gives them both the opportunity and the responsibility to drive transformative change in the garment industry, ensuring that all workers, wherever they are in the supply chain, are paid a wage they can live on. Insufficient wages perpetuate a ruthless system in which workers, their families, and communities, dependent on their labour, are denied the right to a dignified life. Only companies that ensure workers (in their supply chain) receive a living wage can claim they are truly socially responsible.