Latest edition of the Labour Rights Index shows improvements in labour law globally

AMSTERDAM - The Netherlands - The 2024 Labour Rights Index, co-created by the WageIndicator Foundation and its affiliate, the Centre for Labour Research, will be launched on the 7th of October, 2024.

The third edition of the freely accessible Labour Rights Index builds on the previous versions released in 2020 and 2022, providing objective legal data on labour laws in 145 countries. This is up from 115 countries studied in the 2020 Index. As such, it is the only index that compares labour laws at this scale.

Key Data and Insights from the Labour Rights Index 2024

With drastic changes to the world of work over the last two years, the Labour Rights Index has recorded significant developments in labour law. The most common reforms have been in the realm of equal access to jobs for women, paternity leaves, prohibition of inquiring about pregnancy, and prohibition of sexual harassment at work. These reforms also covered equal pay for equal work of equal value and stipulation or timely revision of statutory minimum wages. Altogether, these indicate that legislation on working conditions and remuneration for women have improved in the last two years, since we launched the second edition in October 2022. 

Middle Eastern countries have reformed the Kafala system that came under scrutiny in the wake of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and we see changes in national labour law across the EU, given the EU Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions (2019/1152) and the EU Directive on Work-life Balance for Parents and Carers (2019/1158). Gender equality has been a prominent theme in reforms, with 16 countries passing reforms to enable equal access for women to the same jobs as men, 14 improving paternity leave, and 4 improving maternity leave provisions, just to name a few.

All of these developments point to an important and positive pattern - contrary to beliefs that globalised supply chains would lead manufacturing nations to weaken labour laws to attract investment; there is no race to the bottom in this domain. Instead, there is a collective recognition that fair and equal workplaces are the foundation of stable societies and supply chains. Though there is still a long way to go in seeing these ambitions become reality both in letter and implementation, there are positive signs that we are on the right trajectory.

Overall, 25 countries have seen their overall ratings improve, while 4 have seen them worsen. Oman, Malaysia, Angola, Australia, UAE and Uzbekistan have shown the most improvement in their scores relative to the 2022 index. Conversely, Nepal, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Chad and Iraq have exhibited the highest decreases in their score. The Labour Rights Index 2024 has found national legislation relating to freedom of association, family responsibility, and employment security to be least complied with in relation to international labour standards. Meanwhile, national legislation relating to child and forced labour, safe work, and decent working hours have been the most complied with in relation to international labour standards.  

Minimum wages, whether statutory or negotiated, are in place in over 94% of the countries studied. Two countries have no provision for minimum wages, while 7 - mostly from the Middle East or Africa - stipulate these either for national or public sector workers only. Jordan recently announced a minimum wage that applies to all workers across sectors, not discriminating between local or migrant workers. This followed Qatar's introduction of a similar measure in 2020.

71 of the 145 countries provided for a statutory right to paid paternity leave of at least 7 days. 35 provided 1-5 days of paid leave, while a few had provisions for unpaid leave. Importantly, Iran and Oman are the only countries in the MENA region that require paid paternity leave of at least 7 calendar days. They hold the potential to become trendsetters in their respective regions.

Legislation in nearly half of the assessed countries limited women’s access to the same jobs as men, generally on the pretext of protection. Prohibitions to night work, the creation of extensive lists of jobs considered “hazardous” for women, and restrictions on employment in certain factories and the mining, construction and transportation sectors all contribute to this. Women’s access to work is also often restricted by requirements that they take a pregnancy test. In over 63 countries, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Iran and Ghana, this practice is allowed despite prohibition by international regulatory standards (C183).

The gender pay gap continues to impact women in the workplace. Globally, it stands on average at 23%; i.e., women earn 77% of what men do for each hour worked. It is even wider for mothers, women of colour, immigrant women, and disabled women. Effective legislation is a key step in countering this, and three more countries - Gambia, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe - now mandate equal pay for equal work of equal value.

Background to Labour Rights Index 

The Labour Rights Index is one of the flagship products of the WageIndicator Foundation, a Dutch non-profit organisation founded in 2001 ('Stichting Loonwijzer' in Dutch) and the Centre for Labour Research (Pakistan), which is the global labour law office of the WageIndicator Foundation. 

The Index evaluates countries along ten indicators - fair wages, decent working hours, employment security, family responsibilities, maternity at work, safe work, social security, fair treatment, child and forced labour, and freedom of association. These indicators (and 46 sub-indicators) are derived from ILO’s Decent Work Agenda. Based on their scores, countries are graded on a six-point scale ranging from a “Total Lack of Access to Decent Work” to “Access to Decent Work”.

The Index provides a comprehensive perspective of working norms, making it a useful benchmarking tool in policy debates, both at the national and international levels. Legislators can also use these findings to identify relevant challenges and best practices.

By making their legal and minimum wage rights accessible, the Labour Rights Index empowers workers around the world to make informed decisions. The use of the Index is recommended for employees, employers, international organisations, national governments, as well as national labour market institutions and civil society organisations. 

The Labour Rights Index is a work in progress. New editions will be launched periodically with enhanced scopes, both in terms of countries covered and indicators used to gauge working conditions. These will include, for example, the provision of daycare/childcare,  centres at the workplace, fair treatment of part-time workers equivalent to comparable full-time workers, and the regulation of remote work.

About the WageIndicator Foundation

WageIndicator Foundation is a worldwide organisation, now active in 208 countries. It aims to enhance labour market transparency for the benefit of employees, trade unions and employers by collecting, sharing and comparing information on minimum wages, living wages, international comparable labour law, the gig economy, collective agreements and careers. Mapping national labour markets is crucial, especially in countries where information is not easily accessible to workers.

For more information on the Labour Rights Index, please visit www.labourrightsindex.org or contact WageIndicator via office@wageindicator.org.

7th October, 2024