A Living Wage Should Not Be Decided Without Workers
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 unequal: according to data cited by GLWC, the right to collective bargaining was restricted or absent in 80% of countries in 2024.
This changed how I understood the living-wage debate. Researchers can calculate the cost of food, housing, healthcare, and education with increasing precision, but a technically perfect number has limited power if workers cannot use it to negotiate.
There is also an important distinction between speaking for workers and creating conditions in which workers can speak for themselves. That lesson extends beyond labor rights. At Megaphone, advocacy becomes stronger when the people most affected by an issue are not simply presented as evidence, but recognized as participants in shaping the solution.
A living wage, then, is not only about how much workers should earn. It is also about who gets a voice in deciding what fair work should look like.
댓글