Educating women to earn fair wages World of Good
DCL
We hear about fair trade coffee, or fair trade chocolate. But fair trade goes far beyond foods. Women in developing nations often take on jobs creating handmade goods for wages that keep them under the poverty line. However, many of the women don't know that they could be - should be - making much more than they do. They often are not educated on how to calculate out their per-piece rates into a daily income, factor in what they may be spending for materials and supplies, and get a perspective on how much they're really making. The lack of education keeps them in poverty despite their hard work. But World of Good is changing all of that with their Fair Wage Guide.
Already reaching women in over 61 countries by working with over 600 NGOs, trade organizations and businesses, World of Good has increased the wages of over 25,000 women by an average of 20%. This is huge, and it's all done with a simple open-source calculator program found online, and some training by advocates on the ground.
The Fair Wage Guide is a very simple, free tool that puts the pricing of handmade goods into a new framework, including a localized price analysis of artisan wages, which helps users figure out what is a fair living wage to request in exchange for their work. Because women comprise the bulk of the estimated 250 million handmade good artisans living in poverty worldwide, World of Good focuses specifically on getting the Fair Wage Guide to them.
Paul Myers the former CEO of the largest fair trade company in the United States, Ten Thousand Villages, with approximately $20 million in sales, stated, "Paying people fairly for their labor, when they are producing a multiprocess handcrafted product is complex and difficult. The Fair Wage Guide gives producers, buyers and consumers for the first time a reasonable tool with which to calculate wages, price and fairness in different environments, as products are developed, designed and sold in a competitive global marketplace."
WATCH VIDEO: Fair Trade Chocolate - what it is and how we get it
Indeed, the tool has proven itself to be a significant asset for women in developing nations. So much so, that World of Good recently earned recognition as an Equality Award Laureate from The Tech Awards in San Jose, California.
You can also help out by buying fair trade goods when you shop. eBay's WorldofGood.com incorporates the Fair Wage Guide into their pricing, so even shopping online can yield fair trade gifts that directly support the women who have benefited from using World of Good's advocacy tool.
