FLA supports the United Nations Global Compact’s Forward Faster targets on living wage and gender equality

In 2024, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) joined a group of leading organizations on living wage and gender equality to promote the United Nations Global Compact’s (UNGC) Forward Faster targets. This global, multi-sector initiative is calling on companies to commit and take credible and ambitious action on living wage and gender equality—supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

More than 550 companies have committed so far to the Forward Faster living wage targets for employees and workers in their supply chains. FLA brings its expertise on wage progress in fashion supply chains to this initiative, including its award-winning Fair Compensation Toolkit, to support guidance and action plans to improve wages. FLA joins organizations like the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Living Wage Foundation, Shift, and many others in supporting these targets.

The Forward Faster gender equality targets focus on equal representation in leadership and equal pay for work of equal value. This year, FLA released its updated wage data collection methodology to company members and Fair Compensation Dashboard subscribers, enhancing the online tool for gender disaggregated wage data collection. As a supporter of UNGC’s gender equality targets, FLA continues to make its tools and guidance accessible and commits to enhancing its programs with insights from gender expert organizations like Champions of Change, Equimondo, the ILO, UN Women, and the UN Population Fund.

“FLA looks forward to supporting the UN Global Compact in its efforts related to living wage and gender equality, two key issues in the fight for workers’ rights in global supply chains. We hope that the insights we’ve gleaned over 25 years of collaboration among civil society organizations, companies, and universities will provide a concrete contribution to the Faster Forward targets and contribute to ensuring that people worldwide are paid fairly and protected from risks to their well-being,” said FLA Senior Vice President, Social Compliance Mari-lou Dupont.

“We are pleased to welcome FLA as a supporting organization of the Forward Faster targets on living wage and gender equality. We look forward to working together to support companies in taking credible and ambitious action on where they can make the biggest, fastest impact to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Only by working together will we move forward faster for 2030,” said UNGC’s Head of Labour Griet Cattaert.