SDGs and living wages: Can global goals steer private sector sustainability?

Abstract

Global goals are theorized to catalyze non-state actors' existing strategies and practices to promote sustainable development. This research examines whether and how the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) catalyzed the Global Movement for Voluntary Living Wages (GMVLW). The GMVLW encourages and empowers companies to voluntarily pay workers enough to meet their basic needs and save for emergencies. This “living wage” is, in most countries, above the legal minimum wage. The article first offers an original theoretical framework of seven types of steering effects: discursive, normative, institutional, relational, resource, problem-solving, and progress. This framework draws on, consolidates, and expands on existing research. It then draws on coded fieldnotes from 46 interviews and 54 events related to GMVLW to describe how the movement changed from 2004 to 2024, and to assess whether these changes correlate with the SDGs and how the SDGs may have steered them. This research finds that the SDGs quickly led several national development organizations and a few corporations to prioritize living wages. This support appears to have greatly accelerated the GMVLW. Most significantly, it seems to have enhanced the movement's capacity to solve problems related to living wage implementation, such as developing widely accepted methodologies and freely available estimates. At the same time, the SDGs do not appear to have steered the movement toward significant progress, as defined by the number of workers currently earning a living wage. New due diligence legislation and emerging ESG (environmental, social, governance) norms also appear to have supported progress in the GMVLW.