Benchmark Report: Living Wage Report and 2024 Update for Rural Guatemala, Central Departments
2024 Living Wage Update Report: Living Wage Report for Rural Guatemala, Central Departments
Abstract
This report provides updated estimates of family living expenses and living wage for rural areas in the Central Departments of Guatemala. This region focuses on agriculture, particularly on coffee. The update for June 2024 takes into account price inflation since the original Anker living wage study carried out in September 2016 (Voorend, Anker and Anker, 2016).
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Original Report
2016 Benchmark Report: Living Wage Report for Rural Guatemala, Central Departments
Summary
This report estimates a living wage for Guatemala for September 2016 for rural areas of the Central Departments, focusing on agriculture, and specifically (although not exclusively) on the coffee sector. It was commissioned by UTZ, a member of The Global Living Wage Coalition, made up of Fairtrade International, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Goodweave International, Rainforest Alliance (RA), Social Accountability International (SAI), Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), and UTZ, in partnership with the ISEAL Alliance and Richard and Martha Anker. The study uses the Anker methodology (Anker and Anker, 2017), adopted by the Global Living Wage Coalition, that builds and improves on their earlier work on living wages published by ILO (see Anker, 2006a, 2006b, 2011). This methodology has been used so far to estimate living wage benchmarks for urban and rural areas in more than 25 locations globally, with many more studies underway. This living wage study calculates the cost of a simple, but decent life, including a model diet that complies with WHO nutrition standards, and a housing standard that meets minimum international standards adapted for rural Guatemala. This report estimates the gross living wage for central rural Guatemala for September 2016 to be Quetzal (GTQ) 2,689 (US$ 359) per month. This living wage estimate is considerably higher than average prevailing wages of year around formal sector workers in the rural coffee sector of Guatemala’s Central Departments (around 60% higher than the closest estimate of prevailing wages) and the national poverty line wage (by around 50%). On the other hand, the living wage estimated is similar to government’s monthly minimum wage for agriculture that assumes 30.42 workdays per month and only about 21% more than the minimum wage if one assumes 24 work days a month. However, most agricultural workers, including in the coffee sector, are paid on a piece rate basis and earn less than the minimum wage. The paper calls for making living wage an important objective for the coffee sector with the entire value chain participating in efforts to raise wages.
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