The Fair Wage Guide software is a free tool that creates a new framework for the fair pricing of hand-made goods. At the click of a button, the Wage Guide generates a localized price analysis of wages paid to artisans in comparison to international wage standards. Designed for the use of both artisans and buyers, this tool brings real bargaining power to artisans while encouraging retailers to engage in ethical trade on a global level. Check out the Fair Wage Guide Website or watch the FWG demo video.

The Fair Wage Guide was built through the collaboration and partnership of hundreds of fair trade organizations around the world interested in improving the standard of paying a fair wage to artisans. We hosted two Fair Wage Guide conferences in Berkeley, CA in 2006 and 2007 with 30 of the leading thinkers in the fair trade movement, including artisan representatives from Latin America, Africa and Asia. In addition, we conducted case studies of the Fair Wage Guide with artisan cooperatives in Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, Ghana, Kenya, Thailand, Vietnam, India and Cambodia. We presented the Fair Wage Guide at international conferences in Egypt, New Zealand, Paris, Thailand, Kenya, Belgium and Italy and met with leaders at the International Labor Organization.

Paul Myers the former CEO of the largest fair trade company in the United States, Ten Thousand Villages, with approximately $20 million in sales, stated, “Paying people fairly for their labor, when they are producing a multiprocess handcrafted product is complex and difficult.  The Fair Wage Guide gives producers, buyers and consumers for the first time a reasonable tool with which to calculate wages, price and fairness in different environments, as products are developed, designed and sold in a competitive global marketplace.”

After three years, we are proud to report that we have recruited more than 850 NGOs and businesses in 81 countries to use the tool. In September 2008, the Fair Wage Guide was incorporated into the new Worldofgood.com by eBay marketplace, giving it a new level a prominence with socially responsible companies. In addition, in 2008, we began expanding our outreach to socially responsible companies and international development organizations outside of the fair trade sector. In July 2008, we partnered with the USAID-funded West African Trade Hub to bring the Fair Wage Guide to their export partners in Ghana.

To check out the latest data from the FWG, download the 2010 Fair Wage Guide Report.

In December 2008, we conducted a survey of all 600 registered businesses of the Wage Guide and received a positive 20 percent response rate. An awesome 95 percent of our users report that the Fair Wage Guide is a useful tool to improve wages. In addition, 80 percent of our users report increased earnings for workers from 5-200 percent after using the Fair Wage Guide. This means, conservatively, 25,000 workers have seen their incomes increase by, on average, 20 percent after using the Fair Wage Guide. Read more about our accomplishments.

In addition to collecting quantative data through the Fair Wage Guide website and our survey, we have also been collecting success stories and testimonials from actual NGOs and cooperatives on the ground in Africa, Asia and Latin America who are using the Fair Wage Guide to improve their bargaining power. Check out success stories from NGOs using the Wage Guide.