WageIndicator Project by COTU-K
Mywage.org/Kenya is connected to the international WageIndicator Network. It was launched in 2011 to contribute to a more transparent labour market for workers and employers. It has a yearly outreach of over 32 million people worldwide. In Kenya the Project is Coordinated by Ms Irene Kendi a youthful trade unionist with a passion for workers’ rights. COTU-K engages workers through its affiliate unions by organizing workshops, forums, Social media and development of IEC Material.
This programme is a joint partnership between the Central Orgnisation of Trade Unions -Kenya (COTU-K), the Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKE) and the WageIndicator Foundation. It also works with the University of Dar es Salaam and the University of Amsterdam and other academic and labour institutions to contribute to a more transparent labour market in Kenya.
The objective of the programme is to provide resourceful information on wage information, labour laws, labour information and career advice. Visitors to the website are well-informed about jobs, salaries and the labour laws.
A more transparent labour market in principle improves the functioning of economies as a whole. WageIndicator believes every worker and employer should have free access to information about wages, labour laws and career. We collect and compare labour market information through on- and offline surveys and desk research. We share our findings and serve as an online up to date labour market library for millions worldwide. For global comparison WageIndicator is developing a global Collective Agreement Database, a global Minimum Wage Database, a global Decent Work Check and Map and a global Living Wage Database.
WageIndicator believes this helps individual workers to fairly access the labour market and it helps employers to comply with national labour law. In some developing countries we even assist in mapping wage structures for the first time.
It is needed since many governments don´t have labour law and minimum wage information that is accessible or online. And if they do have it, it´s not always complete, or very difficult to understand. We try to keep our data up-to-date, understandable and comparable with other countries. In addition, governments don’t dispose of information showing wage comparison by occupation. Apparently governments don’t consider this their task. However, many people are interested in them.
Data – collection, reliability and comparability
The WageIndicator collects real wage data, reflecting the going market rates for hundreds of individual occupations. They are based on data volunteered by participants in our online surveys. Moreover, comparable offline surveys are held in 25 countries like Honduras, Senegal, Ethiopia, South Sudan where there is a minimum of internet access. The data is benchmarked with data from other sources. Minimum Wage data are collected per country and kept up to date and comparable by the WageIndicator international staff in Ahmedabad and Bratislava.
Collective agreements are collected with the help of national trade union confederations and employers’ organisations. The WageIndicator office in Dar es Salaam puts them online – coded and annotated in such a way that international comparison of trends and national labour law is possible. VIP data and national Labour Law data are researched and kept up to date by our international staff.
Our data is collected through the same salary survey in all countries. This means that all respondents are answering similar questions, although adapted to the national labour market. This is the basis for our benchmarking. This has been done from the beginning in 2001 and will continue in the same way. There is a need for international comparison of wages since people sometimes migrate, work abroad, or companies consider starting operations abroad. They should know what they embark on when they prepare a high risk move like starting somewhere else.
Work to be done and our dreams for the future
In more developed economies our most consulted service is the Salary Check by occupation. In less developed economies there is a huge demand for detailed minimum wage and labour law information, which we provide online and offline.
WageIndicator shows that labour law in many countries is often good enough, but compliance with the law is the real issue. Therefore WageIndicator offers complaint forms, mediation, a legal helpdesk and even a mobile judge.
If we continue to build strong relations with research institutes, governments, trade unions, workers and employers we keep on striving for a strong WageIndicator operation in all countries, making sure everybody gets a fair deal and can work under “OK” circumstances.
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