The group commits to assess the company's living wage equity and close any potential gaps before 2030.
Solvay is committing to the UN Global Compact call for action on Living Wage, as part of the Forward Faster initiative. As such, Solvay will launch an assessment to guarantee living wage equality within its organization and ensure that its 22,000 employees worldwide receive a fair living wage, which means a remuneration sufficient to afford a fair standard of living1 for each employee even when he/she/they should become the single income earner of his/her/their family.
To do so, Solvay has developed partnerships with experts, including the Fair Wage Network, an independent organization that provides a comprehensive and updated database that is used to define, build and deploy living wage assessments to make concrete steps towards improved fair wage practices. The first assessments will take place in China, the US and the UK, which represents 36% of Solvay’s workforce.
“Every day I am humbled by our 22,000 employees, each of whom makes our success as a company possible,” said Ilham Kadri, Solvay CEO. “I am proud of everything we have accomplished over the past years to improve our employees’ quality of life, and we will continue to seek opportunities to grow our compensation and benefits for our team.”
This initiative complements the Solvay Cares program, which provides all employees with social benefits that cover major healthcare costs, disability leave, parental leave, adoption leave and life insurance, among others. Ultimately, the Solvay Cares benefits in many cases surpass the level of benefits already in place in many countries.
As a further step towards securing a more equitable workplace, Solvay will report on the fair living wage initiative progress annually to the UN Global Compact.
1This entails fresh food, water, housing, education, health care, transportation, clothing, and other essential needs including provision for unexpected events.
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Solvay is a science company whose technologies bring benefits to many aspects of daily life. With more than 22,000 employees in 61 countries, Solvay bonds people, ideas and elements to reinvent progress. The Group seeks to create sustainable shared value for all, notably through its Solvay One Planet roadmap crafted around three pillars: protecting the climate, preserving resources and fostering a better life. The Group’s innovative solutions contribute to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable products found in homes, food and consumer goods, planes, cars, batteries, smart devices, health care applications, water and air purification systems. Founded in 1863, Solvay today ranks among the world’s top three companies for the vast majority of its activities and delivered net sales of €13.4 billion in 2022. Solvay is listed on Euronext Brussels and Paris (SOLB). Learn more at www.solvay.com.