Through the Dutch RBC Agreement for the Food Products Sector, Dutch retailers have committed to jointly work with IDH on living wages. The first phase of work to achieve this aim is measuring the living wage gaps for workers in these banana supply chains. The farms use the IDH Salary Matrix for these calculations.
This report reflects the results of the second-year of data collection, covering wages for the calendar year 2020. The identified living wage gap is 14,96%, covering 86% of the volumes purchased by the Dutch retailers. The second year showed an average living wage gap of 10,7% for 75% of the volumes purchased by Dutch retailers. The first year showed an average living wage gap of 9% for 42% of the volumes purchased by Dutch retailers.
During the second year of this project, there was a substantial increase in the number of farms submitting a Salary Matrix compared to last year (217 vs. 117). With this, the diversity of farms is also increasing, for example, in terms of location, structure, and size. All these variables mean that a diverse range of solutions will be necessary to close the living wage gap. There is no one-size-fits-all approach for the different farms.
During the third year of this project, there was a substantial increase in the number of farms submitting a Salary Matrix compared to last year (332 vs. 217 for the second year and 117 for the first year).