The new Clean Clothes Campaign Living Wage Roadmap

The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) has published an updated Living Wage Roadmap (December 2025). This updates their 2013 roadmap on living wages with 11 new key recommendations for companies, as well as additional recommendations for policymakers.

Human Level’s Take:

• The new Clean Clothes Campaign Living Wage Roadmap reflects the recent shift from voluntary to mandatory due diligence laws, by presenting living wage (i.e., the wage that is sufficient to meet the basic needs of a worker and their family, and to provide some discretionary income) as a common risk area or human rights impact in the garment sector that companies now need to assess, prevent, mitigate and remediate
• This underscores that living wages are moving from being an additional component to human rights due diligence or responsible sourcing to being a core component of due diligence, legal compliance and commercial decision-making for the garment sector
• The roadmap also highlights how purchasing practices, collective bargaining and legal standards sit at the heart of the living wage issue - and provides recommendations for companies to use their leverage in lobbying for living wage-aligned legislation as well as for them to use enforceable brand agreements (EBAs)
• Recommendations for companies span 11 action areas, specifically:
  
  1. Establishing a credible and time-bound living wage strategy
  2. Respecting workers’ right to freedom of association and collective bargaining
  3. Negotiating enforceable brand agreements with trade unions
  4. Prioritising living wages in supply chain setup and sourcing decisions
  5. Ensuring fair purchasing prices and practices
  6. Establishing reliable pay systems and wage transparency mechanisms
  7. Strengthening social protections
  8. Promoting gender justice
  9. Addressing workers in precarious employment
  10. Supporting pro-living wage regulation
  11. Being transparent and engage in collective action
      

Some key takeaways:

• Defining living wages for the garment sector. A living wage is defined in the roadmap as the wage that is sufficient to meet the basic needs of a worker and their family, and to provide some discretionary income. Specifically, this wage is defined as that which: (1) applies to all workers, which means that there should be no salary below the living wage level in the same workplace; (2) must be earned in a standard work week of no more than 48 hours; (3) is the basic net salary, after taxes and (where applicable) before bonuses, allowances or overtime; (4) covers the basic needs of a worker and their dependents; and (5) includes an additional 10% of the costs for basic needs as discretionary income. The CCC also underlines the importance of a living wage being a family wage, and not an individual wage, to ensure that it accounts for unpaid care work, often carried out by women. This stands in contrast to other living wage definitions and calculations that use an average number of income earners per household (e.g., 2) instead of just one, as some homes may not meet this average number.
  

• Two main shifts: mandatory due diligence and a role for governments. This document updates the 2013 roadmap on living wages, with two key changes. The first is the move away from a voluntary company commitments, highlighting that companies falling under mandatory due diligence laws need to demonstrate how they assess and mitigate impacts on living wages. It emphasises the need for enforceable collective agreements and company lobbying for living wage and social protection legislation. The second shift is the focus on governments, recognising their duty to protect the right to a living wage. Governments – especially in manufacturing countries – are being asked to guarantee freedom of association and collective bargaining, establish and implement robust minimum wage legislation and enact and enforce robust mandatory due diligence legislation (among others).
  

• Eleven recommendations for companies. The roadmap provides 11 recommendations for companies to prevent and mitigate impacts on living wages in the fashion supply chain:

1. Establish a credible and time-bound living wage strategy, including developing the living wage strategy together with trade unions, having the strategy endorsed by the company’s board, including a timeline with measurable indicators and endorsing a living wage benchmark system that follows the proposed definition of living wage and ILO principles.
2. Respect workers’ right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, including by ensuring that workers face no illegal terminations, harassment, or the formation of management-dominated unions; and by setting incentives like preferential orders, long-term contracts and premium prices for business partners with collective bargaining agreements.
3. Negotiate enforceable brand agreements with trade unions that incorporate a mechanism for brands and retailers to contribute to the payment of living wages, as well as an effective remediation mechanism.
4. Prioritise living wages in supply chain setup and sourcing decisions by, among others, selecting suppliers based on wage practices or moving production to trade union-friendly workplaces.
5. Ensure fair purchasing prices and practices, including by ring-fencing labour costs in price negotiations, building long-term partnerships by with suppliers committed to paying living wages, and paying suppliers promptly.
6. Establish reliable pay systems and wage transparency by having pay systems that define all remuneration policies, negotiating payment systems with trade unions, and publishing annual overviews of wages paid and gender pay gaps.
7. Strengthen social protections, including by ensuring that that social security contributions to wages are paid in due form.
8. Promote gender justice by systematically monitoring gender-disaggregated data on wages, working hours, workload and by addressing Gender-Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH).
9. Address workers in precarious employment, including by refraining from using labour contractors and agents, ensuring ethical recruitment processes for migrant workers and responsibly sourcing from homeworkers by paying fair prices.
10. Support pro-living wage regulation by ensuring lobbying activities and public statements are consistent with company commitments to living wages, especially in countries where the garment producing countries.
11. Be transparent and engage in collective action, including by publicly disclosing a list of all production units and processing facilities, cooperating other brands and retailers sourcing from the same suppliers and participating in collective initiatives to accelerate payment of living wages in the sector.