This week’s Field Notes began with a simple question: What is a living wage? But the more I explored the issue, the less simple the answer became. A living wage is supposed to provide enough for a worker and their family to live with dignity. Yet that definition immediately raises harder questions: Who defines dignity? Who calculates its cost? And most importantly, who has the power to turn that number into reality? The distinction between a minimum wage and a living wage rev

Calculating a living wage is only the beginning. The harder question is who has the power to turn that number into reality? The Global Living Wage Coalition argues that living-wage benchmarks work best alongside adequate minimum wages and collective bargaining. This matters because collective bargaining gives workers a direct role in negotiating wages and working conditions rather than leaving those decisions entirely to employers or governments. Yet that right remains deeply

Living wage becomes more meaningful when we move from definitions to an actual community. In rural Kericho, Kenya, the Global Living Wage Coalition estimated a 2025 living wage of KSh 34,604 per month, or about US$268. The calculation assumes a family of five with 1.74 workers and estimates the cost of a basic but decent life at KSh 51,646 per month. Those numbers are not arbitrary. Using the Anker Methodology, a living wage accounts for necessities including food, water, hou

If a living wage is supposed to support a decent life, the next question is surprisingly difficult: how much does a decent life actually cost? WageIndicator’s 2026 methodology shows why the answer cannot come from food prices alone. Its cost-of-living calculations consider food, housing and utilities, transportation, drinking water, phone and internet access, clothing, healthcare, education, taxes, and unexpected expenses. The methodology has also evolved to reflect details s

Before reading the ILO’s work on living wages, I assumed that earning a legal minimum wage meant earning enough to live. The distinction is much more complicated. In 2024, the ILO defined a living wage as the amount a worker needs, during normal working hours, to afford a decent standard of living for themselves and their family, while reflecting the realities of a particular country. That definition changes the question. A minimum wage establishes a legal floor; a living wag