Go directly to content
Shared Responsibility for Living Wage: Lessons from Other Sectors
February 27, 2026
Paying a living wage is not something farms can do alone. It requires collaboration across the entire value chain. But what does that collaboration look like in practice?
Other sectors, such as garments and bananas, have begun experimenting with collaborative approaches to advancing living wage. While aquaculture has its own distinct characteristics, the experiences offer useful insights into effective strategies.
Grounding action in data
In both the garment and banana sectors, progress started with better wage measurement. Tools such as the IDH Salary Matrix and the Fair Labor Association’s wage data collection tool helped employers and buyers build a shared understanding of current wages and gaps relative to living wage benchmarks. Credible data made it possible to move discussions beyond assumptions and toward targeted action.
At the same time, these initiatives showed that collecting reliable wage data can be complex, difficult and resource-intensive — particularly where payroll systems are informal or fragmented — underscoring the need for capacity building and realistic timelines.
Phasing improvements over time
Rather than expecting immediate wage alignment, both sectors emphasised gradual, phased wage improvements. This approach allowed suppliers to plan, adjust, and absorb changes while monitoring impacts on costs, competitiveness, and employment. While progress can feel slow, phased approaches helped maintain momentum and avoid unintended consequences. The key lesson is that sustained commitment over time is essential.
The role of buyers and purchasing practices
Buyer engagement played a critical role in enabling wage improvements. Retailers and brands supported progress through longer-term purchasing commitments and by factoring wage improvements into commercial discussions.
In the banana sector, retailers paid voluntary contributions to close wage gaps. These approaches reduced the risk that higher wages would undermine supplier viability. At the same time, they highlighted the challenges buyers can face in aligning procurement practices with sustainability commitments and maintaining continuity amid changing sourcing strategies.
Engaging workers in the process
Worker involvement emerged as another important factor. In the garment sector especially, initiatives that included workers in discussions about wages helped build greater trust and legitimacy.
Worker engagement helped ensure that wage improvements reflected real needs and strengthened dialogue between management and employees. However, these efforts also required investment in training, communication, and sensitivity to local legal and cultural contexts.
Collaboration beyond individual supply chains
Finally, both sectors demonstrated the value of multi-stakeholder collaboration. Bringing together producers, buyers, NGOs, and technical partners helped distribute responsibility, share expertise, and create common reference points for progress. The banana retail commitment, for example, showed how shared targets and collective accountability can help move an entire segment of an industry forward. At the same time, such collaborations require clear governance, sustained coordination, and alignment of incentives to remain effective.
Taken together, these experiences do not offer ready-made solutions for aquaculture. Instead, they reinforce that achieving living wage requires an iterative approach — one that combines data, dialogue, and shared responsibility, and accepts that progress will come through learning and collaboration. This has informed the design ASC’s activities and requirements on living wage, which emphasise capacity building, transparency, phased progress and collaboration.
Moving Forward: A Shared Journey Toward Living Wage
This blog series has shown that living wages are both essential and complex. They are fundamental to worker wellbeing and increasingly expected by buyers, investors, and regulators — yet there is no single solution, timeline, or actor that can deliver them alone.
Experiences from other sectors offer useful signals rather than a blueprint for aquaculture. Progress tends to emerge where wage data is transparent, improvements are phased and realistic, buyers engage beyond audits, and responsibility is shared across the value chain. For aquaculture, this marks the start of a collective learning journey. Different species, regions, and business models will require different approaches, and success will depend on openness to piloting, learning, and adapting over time.
ASC sees its role as an enabler in this process. Through our Farm Standard, tools, and partnerships, we aim to support farms, create clarity for buyers, and provide a credible framework for continuous improvement. Living wage will not be achieved through certification alone — but certification can help align expectations and anchor shared responsibility.
As we conclude this series, we invite producers, buyers, NGOs, and partners to engage with ASC in this journey. If you are interested in collaborating on practical, context-appropriate approaches to advancing living wage in aquaculture, we encourage you to get in touch and help shape the next steps together.
You might also like
Shaping Responsible Aquaculture in and Around Protected Areas: ASC Launches 30-Day Stakeholder Consultation
ASC Certification of Taylor Shellfish Highlights Growing Market for More Sustainable Shellfish in North America
