Topic portal
Wages
Wages are among the most important conditions of work and a major subject of collective bargaining. The ILO is committed to promoting policies on wages and incomes that ensure a just share of the fruits of progress to all and a minimum living wage for all employed in need of such protection. In order to do so it undertakes research and provides evidence-based policy advice on minimum wages, public sector pay, wage bargaining and gender pay gaps. Since 2008, the ILO publishes the Global Wage Report, one of its flagship reports and an authoritative source of information on wage trends and policies at national and global levels.
Global Wage Report 2024-25: Is wage inequality decreasing globally?
This latest edition of the ILO flagship report provides a detailed look at wage trends around the world and in different regions, highlighting changes in wage inequality and real wage growth.
Thematic pages
Living wages
The Protection of Wages
Wage bargaining
The gender pay gap
Minimum Wage Policy Guide
The Global Wage Report
Technical cooperation projects
SAW-A Project
Setting adequate wages - a focus on agriculture
SAW Project
Setting adequate wages
Indicators and methodologies for setting adequate wages
Principles for wage setting
Setting wages should consider both the needs of workers and their families as well as economic factors, which are the two pillars of wage-setting processes. To support its members in determining adequate wages, the ILO has developed a methodology to estimate the needs of workers and their families, as well as a compendium of economic factors that can be used in wage setting.
Report
Economic factors for wage setting
Report
A methodology to estimate the needs of workers and their families for the purpose of wage setting, including living wages
Key publications
Report
The gender pay gap in the health and care sector: A global analysis in the time of COVID-19
Publication
Setting adequate wages: The question of living wages
Report
A Review of Wage Setting through Collective Bargaining
Factsheet
Temporary wage subsidies
Publication
General Survey on Minimum Wage Systems (2014)
Factsheet
Protection of workers’ wage claims in enterprise insolvency
Most recent publications
Working paper 158
Revisiting occupational segregation and the valuation of women’s work
Wage-setting systems
Minimum wage systems and wage-setting practices in the Pacific Island Countries
Wage policies
Setting a minimum wage through evidence-based practices. A situation analysis and guide for Caribbean employers’ and business member...
News and articles
Questions and Answers
Rethinking AI’s impact on the future of work
Minimum wage
ILO launches new evidence-based minimum wage report to support Caribbean employers
Databases
Statistics on wages (ILOSTAT)
Wage policies and living wages: everything you always wanted to know
Learn about minimum and living wages in this online course, offered every two years in English, French, and Spanish. The latest course took place from 17 June to 12 July 2024.
Contact info
For additional information on the ILO's Wages topic please contact the Inclusive Labour Markets, Wages and Working Conditions Branch at [email protected]