Conference Agenda

Abstract

This report provides a detailed description of the ILO Methodology to estimate the needs of workers and their families for the purpose of wage setting, including living wages. The objective of the methodology is to strengthen the capacity of governments, employers’, and workers’ organizations to use data on the needs of workers and their families, along with economic factors, to engage in evidence-based social dialogue for wage setting. The document provides guidance on using household income and expenditure surveys to estimate the needs of workers and their families through a multidimensional approach that considers the cost of adequate food, housing, healthcare, education, and other essential goods and services.

In 2021, the UN launched work towards a new Framework to “Value What Counts”. It is now taken forward by the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Independent Expert Group on Beyond GDP, supported by UNCTAD, UNDESA and UNDP as its co-secretariat, and launched in May 2025. This presentation explores how Beyond GDP metrics, to be developed through the High-Level Expert Group, could recognize informal and care work, promote decent and inclusive employment, and thus support us in addressing inequality and sustainability. By aligning with the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda, these metrics could help reframe economic success around wellbeing, resilience, and dignity, ensuring that what we measure truly reflects the lives and contributions of all workers, including in the informal sector. The presentation will welcome discussion of labour aspects and metrics that should be considered in future headline indicators.