Since its founding, the Global Living Wage Coalition (GLWC) has recognized industry and sector-wide bargaining as the most effective wage setting mechanism in combination with adequate minimum wages. GLWC members acknowledge that offering support to collective bargaining is especially important in light of the diminishing rights of workers globally—in 2024, the International Trade Union Confederation reported that the right to collective bargaining is curtailed or non-existent in 80% of countries.
Workers are best positioned to improve their livelihoods when they can collectively bargain for better terms and conditions of their employment—including wages. Collective bargaining is predicated on the right of workers to organize in unions entitled to enter into collective agreements, a right suppressed in many places around the world. The GLWC and its members support unions and employers by providing relevant data to inform their wage negotiations, involving them in producing that data, and raising awareness for living wages around the world.
