We have partnered with IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, to support companies in securing living wages for workers. Earning a living wage means workers receive sufficient wages to afford a decent standard of living for the worker and their families. Get verified to ensure credible and responsible living wage efforts.
IDH has been working to support companies in securing living wages through the Roadmap on Living Wages. This platform works to strengthen international alignment and build tangible solutions regarding the payment of a living wage.
For verification of living wage gaps, IDH strongly recommends working with auditing organisations that:
- Adhere to IDH Guidelines for Verifying Living Wage Gaps and deliver the associated base report for certificate holders.
- Verify living wage gaps against benchmarks developed by methodologies recognised through the Roadmap on Living Wages’ recognition process.
- Utilise the Salary Matrix (or equivalent tool) to calculated living wage gaps across all operations to be verified.
- Have trained auditors on the use of the Salary Matrix and the Guidelines for Verifying Living Wage Gaps.
Preferred by Nature is recommended as a credible and independent third-party evaluation body, who has adhered to the IDH living wage requirements to verify living wage gaps in companies.
We offer our commitment to provide the verification in all sectors. These are the areas we can offer our expertise:
- Building awareness in your supply chain,
- Identifying living wage gaps in your supply chain,
- Developing a system to close and prevent living wage gap,
- Developing self-assessment tool for your company to identify living wage gap, and
- Training your staff on living wage.
Learn more about IDH work on living wages here or get in touch with us.
If you need a price quote
Your benefits
For buyers or traders that have supply chain partners all around the globe, alignment around both the living wage concept and how living wage gaps are measured will ensure credible and responsible living wage efforts. It is fundamental to building trust and the capacity to scale up.
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Increase staff loyalty and save money Sufficient wages result in workers’ better morale, their health, increased loyalty and consequently – better quality of work. Improved productivity leads to lower turnover rates and savings for employers. It decreases costs associated with absent staff, training and recruitment. |
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Improve brand image By paying a living wage, employers show the community that they value their employees. It is a positive statement about your brand to the community. |
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Contribute to local development Through paying living wages to your employees, you can pave the way for more job creations and contribute to increased consumer buying power. That way, you can support the growth of community and the local economy. |
What is assessed?
There are five requirements for companies who want to advance on their living wage work. They need to:
- have reliable living wage benchmarks for every region they source from,
- understand workers’ current earnings and how these compare to living wage benchmarks,
- apply uniformity in how living wage gaps are verified,
- have practical solutions in place to remove barriers and close living wage gaps, and
- access best practices and learning on how the gaps can be reduced over time.
Get verified
The verification process covers the following steps:
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Contact Preferred by Nature to learn more about our verification services. Our specialists are always ready to answer your questions about the system rules and requirements of the programme.
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Address living wages in your supply chain to identify the living wage in your regions of interest.
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Once our offer is approved and signed, we can schedule a verification date and perform the audit.
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At this stage, you get started to implement effective solutions to close living wage gaps in supply chains.
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We elaborate the Base Report with audit findings and results.
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We issue a verification statement presenting results and scope of verification. |
Your options
Bundle certification
Our experienced team has spent nearly a decade developing the Sustainability Framework - a universal tool applicable to all commodities worldwide and suitable for both large and small companies seriously committed to sustainable business practices. It works as a single universal framework but can be tailored to each commodity, enabling relevant and focused application.
This single tool covers all sustainability issues from child labour, pesticides and living wages, to deforestation, climate change and gender balance.
The global framework will be supplemented by risk assessments in our Sourcing Hub database, enabling to adapt it locally and focus on the issues which are central for each product and region. Sourcing organisations can use the framework to map and mitigate sustainability risks in supply chains, making sustainability commitments across any or all the 29 criteria used in the Sustainability Framework.
Businesses with products verified as meeting all requirements of the Sustainability Framework, can use the Preferred by Nature Hummingbird Seal and make related on- and off-product claims about their verified status.
Where products are already certified to existing schemes, we can integrate any missing aspects from any sustainability standard into the regular audits to minimise duplication and maximise efficiency.
Please note that this certification is independent of the IDH Living Wage verification and is quoted and managed directly by Preferred by Nature.