Short Description

Have you ever tried to advocate that an employer should pay its workers better wages? It’s certainly no easy feat. We find that many employers would like to pay their workers more, but in a competitive business environment with tight margins, it is often difficult to justify increases to a core operating cost, particularly when that means paying above the market rate.

But what if we could convince the employers, with evidence, that paying better wages is actually better for business? The Lab, in collaboration with the Fairtrade Foundation, set-out to do just that in the Dominican Republic. By using a market systems analysis, the Lab identified key operating constraints to banana plantations and potential “win-win” solutions which, if implemented, could address these constraints and improve plantation business performance and worker’s wages at the same time.

See also:

• Getting Beyond Tier 1: Using a systems approach to improve working conditions in global supply chains