Brazil
The Global Living Wage Coalition announced the availability of “Living Wage Report: Rural Brazil, Minais Gerais/Southwestern Region Coffee Growing Industry.” The authors of the report include Alexandre de Freitas Barbosa, Marina Barbosa e Silva, João Paulo Candia Veiga & Murilo Alves Zacareli. In it, the authors detail how they analyzed what wage workers earned and defined what they need to earn to be above the poverty line.
An important caveat to this report is that it considers permanent wage workers living in urban areas not workers who live on farms. (On-farm workers who have in-kind benefits covered by collective bargaining agreements and transient laborers who supply seasonal labor for smallholders were excluded.) The workers studied likely earn more in currency than those excluded from analysis. Still, as the report highlights, the $382 USD per month they earned falls short of the $440 USD per month they need.
In their conclusion, the authors stated, “Bridging the gap between prevailing and living wages should not be the responsibility of coffee farmers alone, who are often price takers.”
Learn more: www.isealalliance.org/LivingIncome