Understanding what living wage is and how to
verify this gap is the only way to start closing it.
More and more organizations have serious commitments about working with their strategic suppliers to identify and close a living wage gap for workers in their supply chains. To enable the dialogue between buyer and supplier about closing the gap, there are some logical steps companies could go through. These are pragmatic steps that allow companies to act on their commitments. ImpactBuying supported IDH – the Sustainable Trade Initiative – in the development of the Living Wage Roadmap.
Trust but verify: Step 3 of the Living Wage Roadmap is about making sure that auditors that verify the living wage gap on the ground are trained and have proven their competence to deliver a trusted IDH Base report. The ImpactBuying Academy provides living wage training to all individuals that either would like to become a Living Wage specialist or want to become an auditor that is going to verify in the field whether a living wage is correctly identified.
ImpactBuying is one of the strategic partners that work with IDH on achieving the goals in the Living Wage Roadmap. We deliver strategic support to companies and governments that want to work on Living Wage and Living Income. What are the steps you can take? How can you measure the gap? We at ImpactBuying can help you out and offer several services:
Living Wage training to become a ‘living wage specialist’
ImpactBuying developed a training for companies or organisations who would like to know more about living wage or would like to be able to provide support to suppliers/organisations or other supply chain partners on the living wage journey. Support is key in rolling out the concept of living wages, in calculating a living wage gap, but most importantly in closing actual gaps. This training is partially tailored to the needs of your organisation.
Living Wage training for retailers and brand manufacturers
We have a focused training program on Living Wage that have been developed specifically for retailers and brand manufacturers. Developed to help them understand how you can use the IDH living wage verification tools and how you can integrate the IDH solutions in their supplier communication, code of conducts, contracts etc. It also focuses on creating scenarios on how to close the living wage gap. This is a tailormade training program.
Living Wage training for auditors that want to deliver a formal IDH Base Report
As IDH living wage projects are taking place all over the world by many partners, uniformity in verifying a living wage gap is crucial. In order to allow buyers to start the dialogue about closing a living wage gap with their suppliers, a trusted report that provides evidence of a verified living wage gap is a good starting point. ImpactBuying delivers the formal auditor training for auditors creating the IDH Base Report. This can be third-, second- and first-party auditors. After an intensive training session of 2×4 hours, the auditors make an exam to show they have the required knowledge on the IDH Salary Matrix, IDH Base Report and IDH Verification Guidelines, to verify a living wage gap as uniform and trustworthy as possible.
Auditors that successfully pass the exams will receive a formal registration number that can be found on the formal IDH Base Report. Audit organizations that would like to be active in delivering a formal verified living wage IDH Base Report can register themselves with IDH here and sign an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with IDH. The signed MOU guarantees that the auditor will be kept up to date about changes in the Living Wage Roadmap. For more information please visit this page. Interested to deliver a formal IDH Base report and become officially registered? Please have a look on their website.
ImpactBuying is responsible for keeping the overview of all individual auditors that have passed the exams. Find the identification numbers of the auditers that passed here.
Are you interested to learn more about the conditions of our living wage training? Please send in your application and we will inform you about the detailed training program of your choice and the cost involved.
