The importance of a living wage in stopping slavery

In this episode, Fuzz Kitto is joined by Carolyn Kitto, to discuss what is a living income, or living wage, and why is it important in the right against slavery. Listen to Slavery Unravelled - Conversations about being slavery free wherever you get your podcasts!


G’day I am Fuzz Kitto Co-Director of Be Slavery Free and welcome to the 4th episode of Slavery Unravelled, where we are looking to help you to understand modern slavery and how you can be slavery free, or at least start contributing towards that reality. 

In this episode, we will be looking at why a living income or a living wage is so important to counter modern slavery. And I am being joined by Carolyn Kitto the other Co-Director of Be Slavery Free. Not only is she my Co-Director, but she is also a colleague, my best friend, and the person that I am married to.

So together we never get away from modern slavery and its solutions.

Welcome Carolyn, and how long have we been looking at the importance of a living wage and how did we come across this?

Carolyn: I guess, first of all, the living wage became an important conversation, when it was realised that what a person is paid is an indicator of how the business values their work, and whether they are being exploited.

Sometimes we have to refer to it as a living wage, and sometimes a living income. What’s the difference between these?

Carolyn: Yes, it can be a bit complicated, but basically, what you need to think about is some people receive a wage. So it's a set amount per shift, or a set amount per per week or per fortnight. Other people, particularly like farmers, or people who work on piece rates, so they get paid for the number of things that they do receive an income, it's not always going to be the same. And so living income applies in in more of a farming community, and living wage in more of a manufacturing situation.

Fuzz: We come across stories of, of living wage or living income inadequacies. And I remember well, back in March, when I was in Ghana, and I was working with and visiting with a cocoa Co-Op, where they were all women. And afterwards, we had photos taken because you've got to do that. And this lady came up to me and, and she didn't know English, and she sort of did the international sign of putting her fingers together up to her mouth, which is I'm hungry, I'm starving. Can you help me? I said to the others that were there. Yes, I'm hungry too, was first of all playing it down. And they said yes, she does not get the right amount for her cocoa for her to get a living income to be able to even survive, let alone look after her children and her grandchildren that also work on the farm with her.

So what is a living wage or income?

A Living Wage is the remuneration received for a standard work-week by a worker in a particular place sufficient to afford a decent standard of living for the worker and her or his family. Elements of a decent standard of living include food, clean water, housing, education, health care, transportation, clothing, and other essential needs including provision for unexpected events.

A living income may vary depending on factors such as the cost of living in a particular area, family size, and specific needs. The concept of a living income is often discussed in the context of addressing poverty and social inequities in society and as it is such a factor in making people vulnerable to modern slavery.

 

Most groups working on calculating a living wage use the Anker Methodology, which is a widely accepted and published methodology to estimate living wages that is both internationally comparable and locally specific.

It was developed by living wage experts Richard Anker (formerly International Labour Organisation – a part of the United Nations) and Martha Anker (formerly World Health Organisation), who spent over 15 years testing and perfecting the various aspects of the methodology.

The methodology has been a catalyst for action around the world on living wage and has been used to estimate a living wage in rural, urban, and peri-urban areas (an area immediately surrounding a city or town) around the world.

The Global Living Wage Coalition (GLWC) is a unique knowledge-action partnership working to enable collaborative action to achieve a decent standard of living for working people and their families worldwide using the Anker methodology. They are a great example of what can happen when organisations work together. They are led by the Anker Research Institute, Fairtrade International, iSeal, Rainforest Alliance and SAI (Social Accountability International) and in collaboration with other members of the Global Living Wage Action Network

The Anker living wage methodology that they use has four main components.

  1. The methodology emphasises participation of local people and organisations in order to increase its credibility and acceptance by participants.

  2. Housing costs are estimated using international and national standards for sufficient housing. By estimating the cost of decent housing, the methodology enables different living wage estimates within countries and helps ensure that workers can afford decent housing.

  3. The methodology requires transparency and detailed documentation and analysis to ensure that the living wage estimate is solid and credible. This includes critical appraisal of available secondary data and adjustments to these data points when required.

  4. A well thought-out combination of new local data and available secondary data is used to make the methodology both practical and credible.

So, local food prices and housing costs are collected as well as the costs of education, health care, and transportation to make sure that workers are paid enough to afford these necessities.

Why is a carefully calculated living wage estimate important?

It's important because it helps a business and a supply chain to know the real value of work being done in terms of supporting the human rights and the dignity of the workers that are in that supply chain. Now, this might all sound a little bit technical, but the reality is that if you are in a workplace, for example, where you have to live where you work, as is often the case with some crops, it's really important that the housing that you are provided with is actually adequate. It's really important that the health care that you are able to afford is good health care when your workplace is isolated. 

A living wage or income is looked at to help families get out of poverty and the poverty cycle. Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities is a violation of human rights. It means a lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society and in their local communities. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family. Now some people use the World Bank definition as the poverty line It is now set at US$2.15 per day, anything lower than that is known as extreme poverty. Why don't we think this is a helpful definition to use is World Bank definition of the poverty line, Carolyn?

Well, for a start, the World Bank definition of a poverty line is is a global definition. And we know that living conditions are so diverse all over the world. The second problem is it's called a poverty line. And so people have this kind of mental model of our if you get more than that you're not in poverty. It actually should be called the extreme poverty line. Because below that line, you're in extreme poverty. And above that line, you're in poverty.

So have we ever seen this poverty line that the World Bank sets us for greenwashing, for instance?

Oh, absolutely. Companies will claim that they may be lifting people out of poverty, when in fact, they're lifting people out of extreme poverty into poverty. It is simply not adequately calculated, contextual understanding of what it is that people need to live off. And it is totally misused in terms of what it is actually providing to people. Basically, to live off $2.15 us a day is almost impossible, everywhere.

The biggest driver of people into being vulnerable to modern slavery is poverty. It makes people desperate, and be willing to take a job that might be really risky. This is played upon by slave traders. In fact, it is traded upon in many ways, by trying to increase the fear that people have coming into situations to try and get a job, get out of the situation, and help the families that are in poverty as well. We were in Malaysia recently, and there was a lot of labour abuse there. And we heard a leader of a large company say “if modern slavery is so bad year, why would people keep on coming? So can't be bad because they still keep on coming.” He had no idea how desperate poverty makes people.

I was in East Africa working with an NGO to help set up coalition's and I asked where people were being trafficked to South Africa to the sixth industry, they told me but most go to the Gulf countries in the Middle East for labour. I asked “Have people come back? What happens when they come back?”

“Oh they said they often go back again (to where they were in forced labour)!”

Why?

“Yes, because the poverty they think, maybe I'll be more than like, lucky next time.”

So Carolyn, tell us about the tea industry.

So the tea industry is an industry where tea that is plucked, has to be processed within less than 24 hours, probably more like 12 hours, otherwise, it rusts. And it is not usable. And so the pluckers have to live on the estates, where the where the tea is being plucked, and it has to be processed on those states as well. And the conditions of poverty, that is the housing that is provided, the health care that's provided that education available to children, is so poor, that younger generations in particular, look at the conditions of their family and go, I can't survive here. Family size is not taken into account. So a family could be living in incredibly small house with 17, 20, 25 people sharing that space. The drive to get out of that poverty makes people incredibly vulnerable to what they call migration or Labour agents. In fact, they are human traffickers.

So why do we push for companies and others to pay farmers, fishers and factory workers a living income or a living wage?

Because it cuts down the vulnerability cause by the desperation of poverty that makes people try to get in dangerous situations, in risky situations, a chance to be the hope that they have to have a better life for themselves and most times for their families as well. The cure (for modern slavery) is very difficult. Much better is prevention. And paying a living income or paying a living wage means that there's less chance for people to get into desperate situations which are played upon by the human traffickers, played upon by the slave traders, and often just put them in a worse situation than the desperate situation they've come out of.

So what can you do about it?

  1. Ask the companies you are buying from if works and farmers are being paid a living income and what is their living income policy.

  2. Ask your suppliers if they know what the living income is for workers in their supply chains.

  3. Look up the resources on our website!

  4. Donate to Be Slavery Free to help us in our work on raising a living income awareness with businesses and governments

Previous
Previous

Stories from the survivors of child labour

Next
Next

The importance of traceability in a Supply Chain