Koen Voorend, lead researcher and co-author of the study, and Marcelo Delajara, senior researcher at the Anker Research Institute, led this meeting, presenting on relevant aspects of the Anker Methodology and providing a detailed explanation of the fieldwork carried out, the analysis of secondary data, and the results obtained.

The stakeholders that attended included representatives of producers and workers in the study area, mainly in the banana sector, and also academics, central bank regional economists, government officials, representatives of Fairtrade International, and of The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Fair Trade Small Producers and Workers (CLAC), which organized the event. After an active discussion about various aspects of the study, all participants verified that the results are sound and comprehensive.

Fairtrade International, supporting the research, intends to use the benchmark as a basis for its Living Wage strategy application in the Dominican Republic, where it has certified most of the banana plantations. The strategy is about drawing additional value from the main business actors along banana supply chains that is then passed on to workers. Considering this principle of shared responsibility, the Institute plans to present the Living Wage report next to traders and retailers sourcing bananas from the Dominican Republic.

This is the first time a new Anker Living Wage Benchmark study has been carried out as a follow-up of a previous study (of 2013) in the same region (rural Cibao Norte). While the original 2013 study has been regularly updated for inflation to 2017, 2019 and 2022 by the Anker Research Institute, these updates do not capture the considerable economic development of the Dominican Republic since 2013. Therefore, inflation updates alone do not suffice to reflect the current, higher levels of decency expected by workers, which go up with economic development. The Anker Methodology foresees this need to periodically redo and re-estimate Benchmark living wages every 5-10 years, depending on how dynamic economic and social change has been.

Koen Voorend is an economist with a PhD in Development Economics from the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague, The Netherlands, and is currently the director of the Institute of Social Research (IIS) at the University of Costa Rica. As a member of the Anker Research Institute’s Global Network of Researchers, Koen has previously been involved in the estimation of Anker Living Wage Benchmarks for Belize, Costa Rica and Guatemala, and has studied the living wage of Nicaraguan migrants in Costa Rica. His co-authors on the Cibao Norte report are Daniel Alvarado, Richard Anker and Martha Anker.

Photos: Marcelo Delajara

The post Anker Research Institute presents Living Wage Benchmark for Rural Cibao Norte, Dominican Republic to stakeholders appeared first on Global Living Wage Coalition.

The GLWC and Anker Research Institute are pleased to share two new living wage updates for the Caribbean coast of Colombia and the Dominican Republic. The new Living wage reports for the Caribbean coast of Colombia and the Dominican Republic update living wage estimates from 2018 and 2013, respectively, to account for changes in inflation, exchange rates, costs of living, and policy changes since the original reporting. Both of these reports estimate the wage a worker in these regions would need to receive each month to afford a basic but decent living for a family of four.

Read the reports:

Read the newest living wage update: Caribbean coast of Colombia

Read the newest living wage update: Dominican Republic

The post New Living Wage Updates: Colombia and Dominican Republic! appeared first on Global Living Wage Coalition.

Read the newest updates:

• Rural Dominican Republic
• Non-Metropolitan, Urban Ethiopia
• Rural Malawi
• Western Cape Region, South Africa
• Urban Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, India
• Rural Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, India

The post New Living Wage Updates Now Available appeared first on Global Living Wage Coalition.