ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

It’s an area rapidly rising on the global agenda, with Living Wages featuring as one of five key targets for businesses to support achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In 2024, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) took a position on the definition and principles of the Living Wage, and regulatory developments such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive are pushing the issue further into the spotlight.

Additionally, a growing number of companies are prioritising Living Wages as a core part of their sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies. Lauren Wetherilt from Living Wage Foundation writes this exclusive piece for ECJ.

The Living Wage is a voluntary rate paid by employers based on the cost of living in a specific location. It enables workers to earn a wage that meets their everyday needs and to thrive within society, rather than just survive. Unlike the minimum wage, which is set by law and often influenced more by economic factors than workers’ needs, Living Wages are independently calculated and regularly updated to reflect the costs of living. Minimum wages are not always enforced consistently and are frequently too low to support a decent standard of living.

Paying and promoting Living Wages helps to eradicate poverty wages and ensure that everyone who works can earn enough to live with dignity. Globally, over one billion workers earn less than they need to afford a decent standard of living- that’s around one-third of all workers covered by ILO statistics.

The private sector employs two-thirds of the world’s wage-earning population, making its role in tackling in-work poverty critical. In the UK for example, 40.5 per cent of jobs paid below the Living Wage are in services to buildings, including cleaning and facilities management (Employee jobs paid below the real Living Wage: 2024). This places the cleaning industry in a powerful position to drive change. In fact, it was the actions of a cleaner who worked night shifts at a bank in Canary Wharf, Abdul Durant, who called for the chairman of the bank to pay a living wage at its Annual General Meeting in 2003 that was the turning point of the Living Wage campaign in the UK.

Consequences of not paying

• Persistent wage gaps fuel economic inequality and cycles of poverty.

• Poor pay impacts health, life expectancy, and educational opportunities for workers and their families.

• Low wages contribute to low morale and reduced productivity.

• Inadequate pay is often linked to labour and human rights risks, including child labour, forced labour and unsafe working conditions.

• Low pay disproportionately affects women and minority ethnic workers, who are overrepresented in historically low-paying sectors like cleaning.

Benefits of paying Living Wage

Paying Living Wages should be seen as an investment, not a cost. It benefits society, but also delivers measurable advantages to businesses and the economy.

Economic impact: The Business Commission to Tackle Inequality estimates that closing the Living Wage gap could boost GDP by $4.5 trillion annually through increased productivity and spending. In the UK, research by the Living Wage Foundation (2024) found that uplifting just 25 per cent of low-paid jobs to the Living Wage could generate £1.2 billion in additional economic growth.

Business impact: According to the British Cleaning Council’s report from March 2024, recruitment is a major challenge: “The industry continues to struggle to replace staff who have left the sector in the wake of the pandemic and Brexit, with other staff having moved to new roles.”

Businesses paying a Living Wage report improved recruitment as well as retention of employees (62 per cent and 60 per cent of UK Living Wage employers respectively).

• A more stable business; improved retention, productivity, employee satisfaction and reduced turnover costs.

• A differentiated business; improved recruitment, attracting higher skilled staff, improved reputation and staff morale.

• Increased supply chain resilience; longer standing suppliers with shared values, transparency and improved supplier performance.

High staff turnover is a persistent challenge across the cleaning industry, where low wages mean people often leave an employer for marginally better pay elsewhere. Paying Living Wages can help to reduce attrition, and in turn reduce costs related to hiring and training. For service providers, paying Living Wages can also enhance service delivery to customers, as lower turnover in operational teams supports relationship-building, skills development, and employee engagement.

Find out more about business benefits from cleaning providers in the Living Wage in Service Provision Toolkit.

How to  implement Living Wages?

• Secure senior leadership commitment -  setting the tone from the top.

• Assess wage gaps - use locally calculated benchmarks or transparent global datasets.

• Develop an implementation plan - consider what areas are higher risk to help prioritise work.

• Engage stakeholders - consult internal teams (buyers, legal) and external partners (civil society, workers’ organisations).

• Support suppliers – provide guidance and adjust purchasing practices to enable Living Wage payment.

• Monitor and report progress – track implementation and share outcomes.

There is now a wealth of resources available to support implementation including: support from local accreditation organisations; guidance from UN Global Compact and its Forward Faster targets; and tools and resources from the IDH Roadmap on Living Wages.

Navigating data challenges

One of the biggest barriers to implementation is the lack of transparent and aligned Living Wage data. In some regions, no Living Wage estimates exist; in others, multiple figures create confusion for employers.

To address this, the WageMap consortium is developing a Living Wage Reference Standard. This will be used to assess existing data to determine the estimate most aligned to the standard in each location. The output will be a publicly available aggregated data map of globally comparable, locally specific, living wage estimates.

Perspectives on Living Wage: ISS

ISS is a leading workplace experience and facility management company, operating across more than 30 countries. For ISS, social sustainability is key to the company’s purpose of “connecting people and places to make the world work better” and its leadership clearly sets the tone about Living Wages from the top:

“We have committed to becoming the world’s leading frontline employer, creating safe, inclusive workplaces where everyone is valued, fairly compensated, and supported in improving social mobility.” - Kasper Fangel, ISS Group CEO

In 2022, ISS committed to increasing the implementation of Living Wages across its industry through joint efforts with policymakers, customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders. This commitment has been reaffirmed in 2025, as part of its social progress programme. ISS has taken a broad approach to help drive change in the facilities management industry and work towards paying Living Wages, such as:

Identifying Living Wage gaps in its own operations: Due to the challenge of accessing transparent data on Living Wages at a global level, ISS worked with WageIndicator Foundation to identify Living Wage estimates across its countries of operations. In 2025, ISS has used these estimates to conduct a Living Wage gap assessment across 28 of its operational countries, with 14 of those countries meeting or exceeding the Living Wage benchmark for all employees. Over time, ISS aims to collaborate with its customers to close wage gaps in countries below the benchmark and is developing internal guidelines and phased action plans.

Investing in systemic change by working together, not in silos: ISS recognised the need for transparent and comparable Living Wage estimates across countries, not just for its own organisation, but also as an essential step towards advancing Living Wage practices for all businesses. In 2024, it partnered with the Living Wage Foundation and WageMap, sponsoring WageMap’s work to establish a Living Wage Reference Standard and a public dataset of globally comparable, locally specific Living Wage estimates.

“Defining what constitutes a Living Wage in every country is an essential step towards advancing Living Wage practices, increasing pay transparency, and ensuring accountability.” - Liz Benison, ISS Group chief people & transformation officer

Recognising the need for greater transparency and collaboration, ISS also supports WageMap’s Living Wage Knowledge Hub. The Hub offers learning sessions, practical tools and opportunities for businesses to connect and share experiences.

Advocating in your industry and value chain: As interest in social sustainability grows, ISS believes Living Wages can be a key area for collaboration between customers and service providers. One of ISS’ key customers is currently piloting a living wage assessment with a group of suppliers, presenting an opportunity to jointly analyse the challenges around paying a living wage and set the foundations for future collaboration on this topic.

During 2025, ISS has actively promoted the business case for Living Wages, speaking at Knowledge Hub events, contributing to an article with WageIndicator, and hosting the Living Wage Foundation on a panel about the role of business in creating social impact at its annual social sustainability event ‘Unlocking the Power of Social Value’. Through its advocacy work, ISS aims to inspire and encourage action from other organisations.

Measuring and reporting on impact: Setting targets and objectively measuring social impact has long been challenging for organisations. To develop a more data-driven approach to social impact, in 2025 ISS launched a global partnership with Social Value Portal to measure the social value - expressed in monetary terms - created by its social sustainability activities. By measuring and reporting in this way, ISS aims to demonstrate the business case for social sustainability and drive continuous improvement across its operations.

For the cleaning industry, adopting Living Wages is not just a moral imperative—it’s a strategic opportunity. It strengthens businesses, supports workers and contributes to a fairer economy. With growing global momentum and practical tools now available, there has never been a better time to act.

Six ways to take action

1. Implement Living Wages, starting with your own operations and extending to your supply chain.

2. Accredit where nationally recognised Living Wage estimates exist and accreditation support is available.

3. Sign up to the UN Global Compact Forward Faster targets on Living Wages.

4. Invest in and partner with Living Wage initiatives creating resources to advance the movement, such as WageMap.

5. Advocate and share lessons learnt from implementing Living Wages, take part in the Living Wage Knowledge Hub or promote the business case for Living Wages with industry/ employer groups.

6. Support government action, advocating for higher minimum wage and alignment with Living Wage, and supporting industry wide collective bargaining
 
About ISS - ISS is a leading workplace experience and facility management company. In partnership with customers, ISS drives the engagement and well-being of people, minimises the impact on the environment, and protects and maintains property. ISS brings all of this to life through a unique combination of data, insight and service excellence at offices, factories, airports, hospitals and other locations across the globe. ISS has more than 350,000 employees around the globe, who we call “placemakers”.

About Living Wage Foundation - The Living Wage Foundation is the institution at the heart of the independent movement of businesses, organisations and people who believe that a hard day’s work should mean a fair day’s pay. We recognise and celebrate the leadership shown by the over 16,000 Living Wage Employers across the UK who voluntarily commit to ensure their staff earn a real Living Wage that meets the cost of living. We are an initiative of Citizens UK.

About WageMap - WageMap is a consortium of Living Wage data and service providers that have come together to drive alignment across Living Wage methodologies and frameworks. Over 2024 - 2025, we will establish a credible and representative Living Wage reference standard which assesses existing Living Wage estimates and benchmarking methodologies. This will lead WageMap to publish a public dataset with the single Living Wage estimate value that is most applicable and representative in a specific geography. In this way, we aim to accelerate the transition towards closing the gap between prevailing wages and Living Wages – globally. WageMap is founded by six organisations: BSR, the Loughborough University Centre for Research in Social Policy, Living Wage For US, Inc., the Living Wage Foundation, NewForesight, and WageIndicator Foundation.