What does it mean?
Laying the Groundwork means establishing a clear and shared understanding of what a living wage is, why it matters, and who needs to be involved. It includes aligning on definitions, mapping supply chains and worker groups, identifying internal champions, and ensuring that the “why–what–who” remains up to date as contexts, costs, and expectations evolve.
This step ensures that senior leadership, HR, procurement, finance, CSR, workers, suppliers, and unions share a common understanding and mandate to proceed in a coordinated way.
How we support you
Resources to help you get started and align on definitions, identify stakeholders, and build the internal mandate to act.
Training
Learn moreUN Global Compact forward faster living wage training
A comprehensive learning pathway for companies and suppliers on how to take action on living wages in supply chains.
Resource
Explore the libraryLiving Wage Resource Library
Curated guidance, definitions, case studies, and practical materials to support companies at any stage of their living wage journey.
Tool
Living Wage Partner Explorer
Find out what organisations are working on living wage and what they are doing around the world. Coming soon!
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Awareness is critical. Even though there’s been around 100 years of discussions, the ILO definition and agreement only came last year (2024). There’s still a need to build awareness on what living wages are and how we get there.
– Unilever
Capability building is key when you start a program, and it takes time. It takes time to train your suppliers, to reach the relevant people at supplier level, whether that is human resources, human rights or sustainability.
– L’Oreal