May 2021

A decent standard of living for everybody: ALDI publishes “International Position Statement on Living Wages and Living Incomes”

Living wages and living incomes are an integral part of human rights and are essential if we want to address inequality and eradicate poverty. The ALDI SOUTH Group and the ALDI Nord Group have jointly published their “International Position Statement on Living Wages and Living Incomes” to emphasise their commitments to a decent standard of living in global supply chains.

Living wages and living incomes seek to address the question of how to reach a decent standard of living:

A living wage ensures that a worker and their family can afford food, water, housing, education, health care, transportation, clothing and other essential needs including provision for unexpected events.
The concept of living income seeks to reach a decent standard of living for self-employed people such as smallholder farmers or family farms to provide them with enough money to cover their basic needs and the cost of production.

We will strive to create lasting change in our global supply chains by strengthening our responsible purchasing practices, which have a direct impact on working conditions, wages and incomes, and by increasing our supply chain transparency and traceability. Pilot projects, such as the payment of premiums or income diversification projects will help to ensure a decent standard of living for workers and for farmers and their families.

"Our Position Statement shows that we understand the challenges ahead when it comes to addressing poverty. By working with business partners, producers, trade unions, political stakeholders and other brands, we can support workers and farmers to achieve living wages and living incomes in our high-priority supply chains."

Anke Ehlers, Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility International at ALDI SOUTH Group

We are bringing the Position Statement to life in a number of ways. In April 2021, for instance, we joined other companies in a Call to Action by the Sustainable Trade Initiative. With this call, we express our commitment to work towards living wages, while calling on other stakeholders to do the same.

“At ALDI we are continuously working to safeguard human rights in our supply chains and reduce poverty. We know that the existing minimum wages are often not sufficient to allow a decent standard of living and we therefore committed ourselves to strengthen our work to achieve living incomes and living wages. Our joint statement underlines these efforts.”

Erik Hollmann, Director Corporate Responsibility/Quality Assurance International at ALDI Nord