Our people plans

Living Wage: Working together to drive systemic change

Consumers expect Unilever, our brands and our partners to step up. So we are. Unilever already pays all our direct employees at or above a living wage. The next step is to widen this commitment to those in our supply chain who directly provide goods or services to Unilever, so we have committed to ensuring everyone who directly provides goods and services to Unilever will earn at least a living wage or a living income by 2030.

We believe our commitment will positively impact millions of people and their dependents.

Together with our partners, other businesses, governments and NGOs, we are looking at purchasing practices, collaboration and advocacy to create systemic change and ensure the rights of everyone to an adequate standard of living.

We believe a systemic approach is paramount, as the issue of wages can not be addressed without also looking at working hours, health and safety or discrimination. That’s why we continue to work hard to address other human rights issues, including labour rights, in our global value chain.

Unilever’s Living Wage Promise

Unilever, along with our partner organisations, such as the IDH The Sustainable Trade Initiative and Oxfam, aims to break the cycle of poverty and strengthen the foundations of the global economy. Through our Living Wage/ Living Income Promise, we are offering purpose-led partners an opportunity to join our efforts and resolve to pay at least a living wage to all workers in their own business operations, with the ultimate goal of improving lives and livelihoods and strengthening business resilience.

This Promise, whilst optional, offers purpose-led partners an opportunity to position themselves on the leading edge of our Living Wage/Living Income commitment and to demonstrate that addressing the social inequality in our value chains is of paramount importance to them.

Living wage - what are we asking our partners to do?

We are asking all companies who sign our promise to:

• Commit to paying at least a living wage to every worker in their own operations and consider making this commitment public
• Advocate for living wages in any industry groups in which they play a role, regionally as well as globally.
• Evaluate existing living wage gaps in their own organisations
• Identify strategies and plans to address any gaps, using learning materials offered by Unilever and other independent living wage experts
• Constructively engage with workers and their representatives to identify ways to close any living wage gaps
• Transparently report on progress towards achieving a living wage. We recommend reporting progress for any commitment you have made publicly.

87 partners have already signed the Promises

Here are some of them: