Fair Wage Guide Project
World of Good: Development Organization is committed to strengthening the Fair Trade standards in the handcrafts sector. The innovative Fair Wage Guide is our first project aimed at empowering artisans and buyers by giving them user-friendly access to wage information. The web-based tool enables users to verify that the compensation paid to their artisans meets international wage standards like minimum wage and international poverty lines. The development and dissemination of the Fair Wage Guide will generate a new level of standardization for the fair trade handcrafts sector. We are currently developing the tool. To access the web-based beta version, please visit: www.fairwageguide.org
Follow along with our summer interns as they test the Fair Wage Guide
Visit the World of Good Development Organization Blog - worldofgood/blog.org.
Our summer internship program is growing! After last year’s inaugural trips to Guatemala, Kenya and Southeast Asia, there was a great deal of interest from MBA students and recent graduates to take the Wage Guide into the field again this summer. Follow along with Priti and Emily as they work with Asha, Orupa, Tara Projects and Conserve in India. They are both spending one month in India working with aritsans on costing training and collecting data for the Wage Guide project. If you would like to apply for the 2008 Field Research Internship Program, please email your coverletter and resume to Audrey Seagraves, Program Manager or send via standard mail to:
Attn: Audrey Seagraves
World of Good Development Organization
5900 Hollis Street Suite X, Emeryville, CA 94608
Founding Principles of the Fair Wage Guide:
- Floor Price Only: The tool will calculate a floor price for the payment to artisans. The floor price is a protective safety net to ensure that artisans are being paid at least a fair floor price wage.
- Empowerment Tool: The tool aims to reinforce the core values of the fair trade movement by making information available to artisans and buyers that will help inform decisions about fair wages, prices and costs. We believe this increased access to information will improve the livelihoods of artisans by increasing their negotiating power and informing the design process.
- All Fair Trade Principles are Important: The calculated floor price is NOT a stand-alone measure. The qualitative measures remain central to fair trade and the tool will help reinforce the quantitative measures. The Wage Guide can only be successful when all the other principles of fair trade are followed.
- Not Defining Market Pricing and Margins: This tool is NOT designed to set market prices or control margins. The Wage Guide aims to inform buyers and artisans of the minimum wage standards in order to ensure the ethics underlying market-based pricing and margin decisions.
- Working Together: The success of the Wage Guide relies on the cooperation of the key players in the industry working together to create a tool that is effective for everyone. World of Good: Development Organization sees itself as the catalyst to start the development of the Wage Guide, but it is our hope to transfer its ownership to IFAT, FTF, FLO in order to truly develop and promote the tool objectively on a global level. Working together is critical to the success of the project.
- Free Access for Everyone: The Wage Guide will always be a freely accessible tool available for the global community. The Wage Guide was built in free, open-source technology so that it will be easy for artisan groups to sync their own systems to the Wage Guide.
- Practical not Perfect: This is a practical solution focused on progress not perfection. We hope to balance the ideals of fair wages with a realistic solution to ensure minimum fair wages are being met in the global fair trade community. We hope to ensure a stronger system for the majority of products in the Fair Trade space.
- Confidentiality: All information entered into the Wage Guide will be kept confidential and the data will only be seen in an anonymous aggregate. A system will be created where each organization will have password protected access to their own information. Only World of Good: Development Organization researchers will have access to the information and they will sign confidentiality agreements promising not to discuss this private information.
- Commitment to our Partners:
It is not ok for buyers to stop working with artisan groups who cannot meet the wage standards suggested by the tool. As buyers, we are committed to maintaining long-term relationships and will work with groups to adhere to the standards.
Status of the Product Test :
We are currently testing 2000 products in the Fair Wage Guide. The goal of the test is to find ways to improve the tool and start building a group of committed fair trade users for the tool. Please contact us if you would like to be included in the test group.
Working together in the Fair Trade community is the key element to this project. The success of the Wage Guide project relies on the cooperation of the key players in the industry working together to create a tool that is effective for everyone. World of Good: Development Organization sees itself as the catalyst to starting the development of the Wage Guide, but it is our hope to transfer its ownership to IFAT, FTF or FLO in order to truly develop and promote the tool objectively on a global level. We are creating a tool to be collectively owned by the fair trade community. Working together in these early stages is critical to the success of the project.
Frequently Asked Questions about the Wage Guide:
- Why do we need a wage guide for crafts?
- What is the fair value of the labor? How is this decided?
- What if an artisan is highly skilled and commands a high price? Can the Wage Guide calculate a fair price for highly skilled artisans?
- Is this anti-market? Are you guaranteeing unfairly high prices to the artisans?
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