Living Wage & Income Lab

DISCO, B Lab and Trabocca on joint efforts to improve farmers’ incomes

DISCO, B Lab and Trabocca on joint efforts to improve farmers’ incomes After a sequence of virtual events – the last one hybrid – the Living Wage & Income Lab returned to an in-person setting. The session had speakers from the Dutch Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (DISCO), B Lab and Trabocca reflecting on the importance of […]

Teaming up to scale up: partnerships driving change in the food sector

Teaming up to scale up: partnerships driving change in the food sector If there is a consensus in the world of living wages and incomes, it is that this is a journey best walked together. Whether you are a company that works in direct collaboration with your supplier, or a research institute knee-deep in the […]

Efficient marketing strategies for sustainable products: Learn from Fairphone, Bionext Organics and others

Efficient marketing strategies for sustainable products: Learn from Fairphone, Bionext Organics and others After 2 years without face-to-face meetings, the Lab filled a room with companies and Civil Society Organisations to discuss one central question: what are the key elements of a successful marketing strategy for sustainable products? You can now replay the session, and […]

Marketing a Fair Product: Join the next Living Wage & Income Lab

Marketing a Fair Product: Join the next Living Wage & Income Lab The next session of the Living Wage & Income Lab is coming up, and this time around we ask ourselves: How can your sustainability strategy succeed in addressing living wages and incomes, and how do you communicate the journey? The session Marketing a Fair Product discusses common obstacles […]

3 lessons on paying farmers a fair price from Tony’s Chocolonely, Fairtrade Original, Eosta and Oxfam

3 lessons on paying farmers a fair price from Tony’s Chocolonely, Fairtrade Original, Eosta and Oxfam What do Tony's Chocolonely, Fairtrade Original and Eosta have in common? Despite working with different commodities, tackling low wages is a priority among their main sustainability practices.  What do Tony's Chocolonely, Fairtrade Original and Eosta have in common? Despite […]

Save the Date: The Living Wage & Income Lab is back

Save the Date: The Living Wage & Income Lab is back The lab is back, now as the Living Wage & Income Lab, and it's time to address living wages and incomes in the agri-food sector. As new measures require, the event is going digital, so save the date: 8 February 2022, 10-11am CET. Once […]

5 years of Living Wage Lab celebrated

5 years of Living Wage Lab celebrated On Thursday 19 November, the Living Wage Lab celebrated its five years existence. In a one-off live broadcast, experts on living wage and living income spoke on different topics, varying from some practical business examples to the government perspective and a view on the future.  The event, which […]

Invitation: 5th anniversary of the Living Wage Lab

It’s been five years since Hivos and Fairfood started the Living Wage Lab. And despite COVID, we are not going to have this auspicious moment go unnoticed. We would like to invite all our Living Wage Lab members and anybody with an interest in agrifood, living wages and living incmes to join us on Thursday 19 November for our one-off broadcast with key speakers from the industry.

Lab Session #17 – The impact of COVID-19 on horticulture workers (webinar)

During the first-ever Living Wage Lab webinar, participants and panellists agreed that COVID-19 asks for smart government measures and innovative business initiatives to support the workers in the agri-food sector.

Lab Session #16 – Presentation of ALIGN

During the first Lab-session of 2020, agri-food professionals had the opportunity to give their input for the future development of ALIGN: the go-to portal if you want to take practical steps towards living wage and living income. What is most needed are best practices and a portfolio of strategies.

ALIGN: a guidance tool for living wages and incomes

An exiting outcome of the conference 'The Only Way is Up!' was the launch of ALIGN. ALIGN is a platform that gives access to existing resources on living wage and living income in an interactive and customised way. The portal is meant to be a guidance tool for agri-food companies aiming to reduce complexity around the topic, prioritising easy access and accountable information to build a strong understanding of living wages and income, and assessing risks in supply chains.

Lab Session #15 – How to communicate living income

On 4 July, ‘Verstegen Spices and Sauces’ hosted the 15th lab session. They took the Lab partners back to the origin presenting the results of a living income study into their nutmeg supply chain. As always with Lab sessions, there was no sitting back during this journey; participants were invited to come up with creative ideas on how to communicate the results of such a study to consumers.

Lab Session #14 – Strategies to assess living wage gaps

The first Living Wage Lab session of 2019 united a variety of stakeholders in the agri-food sector; long-time engaged participants but also many new faces. Given the co-creative nature of the lab, we used all the expertise in the room to address the following question: what is the best strategy to investigate wage and income gaps in your supply chains?

Lab Session #13 – Paying out a living wage as one of multiple buyers

The participants of the Living Wage Lab want to ensure a living wage for all nodes in their supply chain. But how can you reach that goal when you don’t own the farm or factory from which you source and you are not their only customer? With Fairphone as an example, this was the topic of the 13th Living Wage Lab, which took place in Utrecht on 13 November.

Lab Session #12 – First steps towards Living Wage Tool

A good crowd has shown up for the 12th session of the Living Wage Lab. One thing that the Living Wage Lab offers to participants, is the certainty to find a trusted space for discussion and for experimentation. The idea of experimenting is well alive in the Freedom Lab in Amsterdam, the space where this Lab session takes place. It serves as a reminder of the principles on which we operate. Exploring and experimenting are key components of the Lab.

Lab Session #11 – Living wage dialogue along the supply chain

Last April 18th participants of the Living Wage Lab came together at the New World Campus in The Hague for the first real interactive Lab session this year- and interactive it was! Through a role play, participants had the chance to experience a living wage dialogue up and down the supply chain and to experience it from another angle than the one they are usually in.

Celebrating two-year anniversary Living Wage Lab

Thursday, January the 18th – Indeed, the day of The Storm – we celebrated the two-year anniversary of the Living Wage Lab. In style, with a breakfast session in the Nieuwspoort in The Hague. For everyone who made it: we sincerely hope that you have returned home safely and on time. For everyone who could not be there: a report on the session below.

Lab Session #9 – Purchasing practices

On the 21st of September Lab partners met @ the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) in the Hague. For this session Patrick Belser, Coordinator of the Wage Group at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) shared findings of a  recently published  study Purchasing practices and working conditions in global supply chains: Global Survey results which the ILO carried out in collaboration with the joint Ethical Trading Initiatives (ETIs).

Lab session #8 – Living wage due-diligence

On the 22nd of June 2017 Lab partners met at Verstegen Spices & Sauces’ in Rotterdam. In the Inspiration Room, where the scents of exotic spices filled the air, Marianne van Keep, CSR Manager, welcomed us with a pitch on Verstegen’s CSR story and link with living wage.

Living Wage Lab meets at Verstegen Spices & Sauces

Thursday June 22nd the Living Wage Lab organises its next Lab session at Verstegen Spices & Sauces in Rotterdam. During this session Piet Sprengers, Head Sustainability & Research at ASN Bank, will present the bank’s living wage strategy and its results so far.

How to start your own Living Wage project

On 13 April 2017 the Living Wage Lab organised its 7th Lab session at the Impact Hub in Amsterdam. The objective of this session was to get to know some of the projects Lab partners are undertaking in specific supply chains.

The Living Wage Lab celebrates its first birthday

The Living Wage Lab celebrates its first birthday On 26 November 2015, Hivos and Fairfood gathered Dutch stakeholders from the agro-food sector to develop and experiment with innovative solutions for living wages in their supply chains. The wages of many food workers around the world are so low, that they often cannot afford to buy for themselves the food they pick […]