Anker Reference Values for living wages and living incomes are based on a methodology developed by Richard and Martha Anker and Ian Prates, using a regression analysis of the 40 quality-assured Anker methodology living wage and income benchmark studies that have been carried out so far.

Read the reports:

2022 Living Wage Reference Value – Urban Guatemala

2022 Living Wage Reference Value – Urban Jordan

The post New Reference Values for Guatemala and Jordan appeared first on Global Living Wage Coalition.

In support of this approach, Anker Research Institute Senior Researcher Marcelo Delajara was a keynote speaker at a meeting of cane sugar trade unions on June 23-24 in Antigua, Guatemala.  CNV International coordinated the meeting with support of the Guatemalan workers’ organizations CGTG and UNSITRAGUA. Representatives of trade unions in the cane sugar sector from all the Central American countries, plus Colombia and Bolivia, attended the meeting.

Day One of the meeting was devoted to living wage—its definition, measurement, difference with prevailing wage, and inclusion in certification schemes. The discussions aimed to help union members better understand living wage concepts and introduce them to existing research and tools they can use to make progress on CNV Internationaal’s roadmap to living wage. In their roadmap and position paper, CNV adheres to the GLWC definition of a living wage and promotes the Anker methodology as an objective estimate of living wage levels that provides a basis to reduce the gap between prevailing wages and the living wage.

In his presentation, Marcelo provided additional context and detail about the GLWC definition of a living wage and the differences and relationships between the living wage, prevailing wage, and minimum wage. He then showed how Institute researchers estimate the living wage using the Anker Methodology, which is based on widely accepted normative standards and primary price data to determine the cost of food and housing at a basic but decent level for a given region. He explained how primary information collected in the field is complemented with secondary information available from official public surveys on population, employment and household expenditures to estimate the cost of non-food non-housing goods at a level of decency. Finally, Marcelo presented and discussed a comparative table of Anker living wage estimates for Latin American countries since 2013 (13 Benchmark studies and 6 Reference Values).

Photo by Monica Garzaro (CNV Internationaal, Guatemala)

Attendees were highly engaged with the presentation and their questions help to demonstrate how workers and unions can use living wage research in their organizing and advocacy efforts. Many questions focused on the Anker methodology. How are certain local parameters estimated? Why is it useful to conduct focus groups with workers before the fieldwork? What is the impact of the provision of public services on the living wage? Does the methodology take into account the cost of childcare? How does high inflation affect the estimation and updating of the living wage? While other questions addressed how the Anker Benchmarks and Reference Value estimates can be used. Is a living wage estimate valid for workers in sectors other than the one used as the focus of the measurement? What is the living wage for single mothers? What is the relationship between living wage and living income? Finally, attendees gave their opinion on whether the available living wage estimates for their countries of origin seemed reasonable.

The Institute was especially proud to participate in this event due to CNV’s commitment to promoting the adoption of a living wage strategy along the sugar supply chain. While localized and company-specific living wage commitments are important and help push the movement forward, action at the industry level helps ensure that benefits not only reach all workers, but also lead to a fairer and more sustainable future for the industry as a whole.

CNV Internationaal is an independent foundation that protects and promotes workers’ rights based on the principles of international solidarity, personal responsibility, social dialogue and pluralism. They offer support to workers and companies with specific tools, advice, and training on how to address living wage issues in supply chains. They also offer companies access to data and information on prevailing wages, the quality of collective bargaining agreements and social dialogue in the supply chains in which they operate: clothing, cane sugar, palm oil, mining, and cashew. Read more about CNV Internationaal living wage program.

The post ARI Senior Researcher Speaks at Trade Union Meeting in Guatemala appeared first on Global Living Wage Coalition.

The Global Living Wage Coalition and Anker Living Wage and Income Research Network are excited to announce the release of a living wage update for rural Guatemala. The study was originally conducted in 2016, and this update accounts for changes in inflation, exchange rates, costs of living, and policy changes since the original reporting. This report estimates the wage a worker in rural Guatemala needs to receive each month to afford a basic but decent standard of living.

Read the report:

Living Wage Update 2021: Rural Guatemala

The post New Living Wage Update: Rural Guatemala appeared first on Global Living Wage Coalition.

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The post GLWC Releases Update Reports for Costa Rica and Guatemala Living Wages appeared first on Global Living Wage Coalition.

The GLWC has also scheduled English and Spanish language webinars on this Guatemala living wage report, to create an opportunity for you to hear from the authors of the report first hand about study findings and key decisions taken using the Anker Methodology. The lead researcher, Koen Voorend will be joined by Richard Anker and Martha Anker, creators of the Anker Methodology for living wage estimation to discuss study findings and key decisions taken using the Anker Methodology. Noura Hanna and Miguel Zamora of Rainforest Alliance joining forces with UTZ, and Michelle Bhattacharyya, coordinator for the Global Living Wage Coalition (GLWC) will also join the webinar to discuss the work of the GLWC and its members in creating these living wage estimates and implementation efforts to advance toward a living wage for workers in Guatemala. Register now for the Spanish or English language webinars and save the date for the appropriate webinar on April 25 (Spanish) at 16:00 GMT or April 26 (English) at 16:30 GMT. We look forward to having your active participation, but if you are unable to attend at this time, we will make the recorded webinars available.

The GLWC will continue to release living wage benchmarks frequently over the next six months. Please feel free to share and invite others to sign up for future benchmark releases.

The post Guatemala Rural Central Region Living Wage Benchmark Now Available appeared first on Global Living Wage Coalition.