Labour Rights Index 2022: Global Update and Key Findings

Abstract

The WageIndicator Foundation and the Centre for Labour Research co-produced the first edition of the Labour Rights Index in 2020. This is the second edition of the Index with 135 countries, and the report now has an update in March 2023. As explained in the first version, the Labour Rights Index is the culmination of more than 13 years of comparative labour law work by Iftikhar Ahmad, who has spearheaded this report.

The scoring for country profiles under different indicators, though essentially hinged on the Decent Work Checks, have also been confirmed from other indices/reports, including the Women, Business and Law Database (World Bank), International Social Security Association (ISSA) Country Profiles, various ILO databases, the US Department of State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (USDOS CRHRP), the US ILAB Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, the ITUC Global Rights Index and the Centre for Global Workers’ Rights. Our special thanks and appreciation go to the International Labour Organization, whose instruments (conventions and recommendations) are part of our scoring methodology: the country scoring has been based on these instruments as much as possible. The Index, heat map and country profiles are available on https://labourrightsindex.org.

The March 2023 update of the Labour Rights Index includes comparison maps where we have tried to normalise and contextualise country scores by integrating data from other world indices. The updated report also details some score adjustments in trade union indicator scores for some countries due to the availability of legal information. For these changes, please see pages 161 - 171.