MADE51: Paying a Living Wage to Refugee Artisans

“Living Wages are a cornerstone of decent work”, yet calculating and implementing them within informal, flexible, or piece-rate based artisan supply chains presents distinct operational challenges, explains Isabella Luglio, Fair Payment Consultant at MADE51.

“For forcibly displaced individuals and refugee artisans, earning a fair and predictable income is essential to achieving economic self-reliance and community stability.”

To establish transparent remuneration standards in these settings, MADE51- a global initiative established by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), that connects displaced artisans to global markets - partners with WageIndicator to embed its network-wide payment policies in locally verified, data-driven benchmarks.

Scope, Scale, and Living Wage Foundations

MADE51 formalised its process to advance Living Wages across its global supply chain in 2023, developing dedicated tools and assessment frameworks in partnership with WageIndicator. Today, the MADE51 ecosystem operates across 23 refugee-hosting countries, coordinating with 38 local social enterprise partners.

In 2025, a total of 3,530 refugee and host-community artisans earned an income through this network, 96 percent of whom were women.

To evaluate compensation across these diverse economies, Isabella at MADE51 relies on WageIndicator’s Living Wage database. She uses WageIndicator’s lower-bound Living Wage benchmark for a typical family, defined as the income required for two adults (one working full-time and one part-time) to meet basic living standards within their specific local context.

While datasets cover all 23 host countries, artisan earnings vary by product type and location; across the 14-product 2026 Peace Collection, produced across eight locations, daily artisan earnings ranged from 17% to 260% of local Living Wage benchmarks, averaging 94% across the collection as a whole.

Practical Implementation and Price-Setting with Local Partners

Setting fair piece rates with local partners requires converting monthly or daily regional benchmarks into itemised production costs. Local social enterprise partners calculate these rates using the internal MADE51 Costing & Pricing Tool, which integrates WageIndicator Living Wages and minimum wages benchmarks alongside United Nations Operational Rates of Exchange.

“In practice, the implementation model relies on an integrated daily production calculator that helps the local social enterprises calculate an estimated average output during a standard eight-hour workday”, explains Isabella. This approach ensures that flexible working arrangements - frequently required by female artisans balancing caregiving or domestic responsibilities - are compensated equitably based on time spent. Moreover, wage compliance is evaluated separately for every stage of production, such as cutting, embroidery, or sewing. Each stage must independently meet or exceed local legal minimum wages, with the explicit objective of reaching or exceeding the Living Wage benchmark.

To maintain supply chain oversight, the pricing tool employs a visual tracking system for every product submitted for approval. Items marked with a yellow indicator meet legal minimum wage standards and are progressing towards the Living Wage benchmark, whereas items marked with a green indicator meet or exceed the WageIndicator Living Wage benchmark. This methodology provides MADE51 and commercial partners with full visibility into the time, wage, and cost breakdowns behind each product, enabling transparent and data-informed pricing.

Because no single metric provides a complete picture of fair payment, MADE51 also monitors how product value is distributed to artisans. In addition to comparing earnings against WageIndicator’s benchmarks, the methodology assesses the proportion of the wholesale product price allocated directly to artisan payments. MADE51 requires artisan payments to represent at least 30% of the wholesale price for its Main Collection and at least 45% for Special Collections. This additional measure helps ensure that meeting a wage benchmark also translates into a meaningful share of the product value reaching the artisans who make it.

Brand Collaborations Commercial Integration and Brand Collaborations

“Integrating Living Wage benchmarks into commercial supply chains requires balancing fair artisan remuneration with commercial viability.” A prominent example of this commercial model is MADE51’s partnership with UK retailer John Lewis, which launched a collection of six holiday ornaments handcrafted by more than 200 forcibly displaced women across six countries using heritage techniques. The pricing structures are designed to ensure fair wages while remaining commercially competitive. While brand collaborations extend across global markets, larger collaborations, such as those with Chloé and UNIQLO, include tailored impact reporting, drawing on production monitoring and artisan payment data to help brands understand and communicate their positive impact.

Overcoming Operational Challenges and Addressing Wage Gaps

Maintaining Living Wages on an annual basis involves navigating several complex operational hurdles. Sudden local inflation and currency exchange shifts can rapidly erode real earnings.

In response, Isabella explains, “MADE51, UNHCR, and local social enterprise partners monitor changing conditions and adjust piece rates dynamically based on changes to local economic conditions”.

Additional challenges include assessing living standards in refugee camp settings where housing or food may be subsidised, but where the level of assistance provided can change suddenly depending on funding availability, as well as addressing varied digital literacy among local partners through multilingual guidance and hands-on workshops.

A practical illustration of WageIndicator data in action occurs in South Sudan, where approximately 400 refugee and host-community women in Juba and Gorom Camp produce the 'With Refugees' and 'Stackable' bracelets. In this location, the applicable WageIndicator Living Wage benchmark is set at US$5.78 per eight-hour workday. Field production data reveals that beading artisans earn US$17.90 per day, while quality control artisans earn US$12.10 per day, placing both payment rates at more than double the local Living Wage benchmark. These figures reflect earnings on days when production orders are available and should not be understood as continuous daily income throughout the year.

Because these bracelets are fast, high-volume items, calculating payments strictly at the baseline Living Wage would return a disproportionately low share of product value to the artisans. Consequently, piece rates were deliberately set higher to ensure a greater proportion of sales value reaches the makers, while unit allocations per artisan are capped to distribute production fairly and limit income disparities within the community.

Looking Ahead: Decent Work and Long-Term Stability

Earning a reliable income provides displaced families with critical stability, directly supporting nutrition, education, and financial security within host communities. Moving forward, Isabella says that “MADE51’s vision centres on expanding transparent supply chain oversight, refining data-driven costing tools, and working directly with local social enterprise partners to systematically close remaining payment gaps across all 23 refugee-hosting countries. Our partnership with WageIndicator is crucial to enabling MADE51 to reach this goal.”