Although governments worldwide have committed to implementing minimum wages for years, many have yet to raise wages to a living wage rate and enforce them. The main reason for this is that it is very hard for single countries to do this, as they fear that corporations will move their production to other countries with cheaper production costs. To avoid this, we need a Global Living Wage Instrument so that countries can work together across regions and internationally to achieve a wage which allows people a decent life. Pivotal to this is that they are given a realistic timeline with incremental wage increases over multiple years.

There is a need for a multi-level, transnational labour law to ensure a living wage for all because work today occurs in global supply chains where workers and capital cross borders, whereas labour laws do not. The global living wage strategy proposed in my new book is based upon extensive empirical research and regulatory theory and is more ambitious than previous real-life experiments and academic propositions.

Competition to keep prices low and corporate profits high often results in exploitative labour practices, with the greatest burden on informal and precarious workers. These workers are generally a part of global supply chains, yet, what they earn is not enough to cover basic living costs. Despite efforts worldwide to reduce the number of working people in poverty, progress has stalled. A key reason is that current labour laws are powerless to help these workers as they were designed with a different workforce in mind.  Labour laws are national in scope, while work today occurs in global supply chains in which both workers and capital cross borders. Labour laws regulate employment, whereas those pushing down wages often subcontract production. To close this gap between labour laws and today’s mode of production, we need a global living wage backed by an international labour law.  

Better Factories Cambodia, the International Labour Organisation and International Finance Corporation's labour inspection body, is coming under increasing pressure from the Cambodian government as part of the pre-election crackdown.  My new article explains why. 

Government announces some of the details of the Australian Modern Slavery Act.