Living Income and Living Wage Study for the Colombian Coffee Sector
On October 6 and 7, 2022, Verité, in partnership with the Anker Research Institute and with support from, RGC Coffee, organized two online sessions to present the results and recommendations of the “Living Income and Living Wage Report” for rural areas and small towns of coffee-growing regions in central Colombia. The study was carried out by the Anker Research Institute, a founding member of the Global Living Wage Coalition, which carries out studies to estimate living wages and living incomes worldwide using standardized, high-quality, and cost-effective methods.
This study, funded by Keurig Dr Pepper, provides a benchmark for a pilot project in Colombia under Verité’s U.S. Department of Labor-funded Cooperation On Fair Free Equitable Employment (COFFEE) Project. The pilot project, implemented in collaboration with RGC, is piloting cost-effective, alternative and complementary compensation mechanisms to identify the most effective interventions to improve workers’ wellbeing, while providing benefits for farmers.
The session brought together Colombian and international civil society, government, and private sector stakeholders to share findings and recommendations and to seek stakeholder input to make the final report as complete and accurate as possible. Overall, 40 participants attended the sessions, including 19 who attended the English session, and 31 who joined the Spanish session.
To learn more about the COFFEE Project, including our Colombia pilot project and our open-source toolkit and online training modules to help companies identify, address, and prevent labor issues in coffee supply chains, please visit the COFFEE Project webpage.
The final living wage and living income study will be shared by Verité and published on the Global Living Wage Coalition’s webpage shortly.
Photo credit: Verité
