The role of Fairtrade certification for wages and job satisfaction of plantation workers

Katharina Krumbiegel, Miet Maertens and Meike Wollni

No 246408, GlobalFood Discussion Papers from Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development

Abstract: Worker welfare and employment conditions in the agri-food producing and processing sectors in the global south have become an increasing concern for consumers. Sustainability standards, such as Fairtrade, play an important role in agri-food markets of horticultural produce and may be a tool to address these concerns. However, so far the implications of Fairtrade certification for extrinsic and intrinsic employment factors of hired labor on large-scale plantations remain hardly understood. In this paper we assess its effect on workers’ hourly wages and their level of job satisfaction with primary survey data from 325 randomly sampled workers from eight different export-oriented pineapple companies in Ghana. We apply a linear, linear mixed model and instrumental variable approach to take into account the multilevel characteristics of our data and possible selection bias. Our findings show that both hourly wages and job satisfaction are indeed higher on Fairtrade certified plantations. Factors of increased job satisfaction are likely driven by higher wages, permanent employment contracts, training opportunities, company services such as medical care and paid leave as well as established labor unions on Fairtrade certified plantations.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Farm Management; Labor and Human Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24
Date: 2016-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-lma and nep-pke
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Role of Fairtrade Certification for Wages and Job Satisfaction of Plantation Workers (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:gagfdp:246408

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.246408

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