A worker pours glossy red and yellow coffee cherries from a large yellow bucket over a concrete edge inside a rustic processing shed with wooden beams and metal roofing.

SAW-A Project

Setting Adequate Wages - a focus on agriculture in Colombia

Context

Globally, millions of workers earn very low wages or insufficient labour income, placing them at the lowest rung of rural poverty. In 2024, the ILO and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development are advancing this strategy to promote the setting of adequate wages in agriculture through statutory minimum wages and/or collective bargaining.

This initiative, implemented in Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia and Colombia, aims to ensure decent living standards for workers and their families, while also supporting the sustainability of the businesses that generate employment for them. This action is further supported by research, cooperation, knowledge-sharing and advocacy at global, regional and sectoral levels.

In Colombia, the agricultural sector represents a significant share of the country’s total exports, but it faces major challenges related to low wages, poor working conditions, low productivity, weak labour inspection, limited compliance with Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and high levels of informality.

Objectives and expected results

▶ Result 1: Minimum wage setting is based on relevant indicators reflecting the needs of workers and their families, as well as economic factors

▶ Result 2: Social partners use information on the needs of workers and their families to inform wage negotiations (evidence-based)

▶ Result 3: Compliance with both statutory and collectively bargained minimum wages is improved
▶ Result 1: National and international living wage initiatives are informed by data on the needs of workers and their families, and by economic factors

▶ Result 2: Governments, social partners and other stakeholders have access to evidence-based tools and global knowledge products on how to promote wages and incomes that enable agricultural workers to attain a decent standard of living

Next steps

Developing

a comprehensive knowledge base on wage and income setting in both formal and informal segments of Colombia’s agricultural economy

Building

capacities and harmonising criteria through training for key stakeholders involved in the project, highlighting the importance of agreed/negotiated wage-setting processes

Promoting

social dialogue (both bipartite and tripartite) around living wages and incomes, considering the needs of workers and their families alongside relevant economic factors