I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth

will starve in the process. Benjamin Harrison

Article 23 of the Declaration of Human Rights includes: 1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. 2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. 3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. The Declaration of Human Rights identifies the minimum conditions for human dignity and wellbeing. Article 23 focuses on the right to earn a just wage, thereby ensuring an income sufficient to live a fulfilling life free from hunger and deprivation. A just wage is closely aligned with ideas of equality and human dignity. Both concepts of human dignity and equality come from the recognition that all people have an intrinsic value. Fundamental to such a notion is the unqualified right for all people to have the opportunity to adequately provide for themselves and their families. True equality and dignity does not arise from absolute poverty or dependency upon charitable hand-outs, but instead from opportunities to be a productive and full participant within a given society. Any system, whether global or local, that undermines a persons right to full and equal participation within their respective communities, is unjust and unacceptable. This year has seen the spotlight focus on the exploitation of migrant workers, both here in New Zealand as well as overseas from where many of our goods are manufactured or grown. Simultaneously the living wage campaign is challenging our passive acceptance of unacceptably low wages being paid to workers who struggle on the margins of employment opportunities, by publicly pushing for a wage that will allow a person/family to cover basic living costs and to take part in community life. Whilst acknowledging the subjectivity of the on-going debate both nationally and globally on how much is considered to be a living wage in any given country or locationdiscussion needs to take place. The International Labour Organisations report states, By being clear about subjectivity, dialogue becomes easier. Governments, unions, companies and NGOs need to discuss which assumptions are appropriate for their time and society, based on information on typical costs and living conditions. The fact that estimating a living wage is partly subjective does not in any way make it 1 impossible to agree on a definition or on how to measure It. A fair days pay for a fairs days work is a debate rooted in the depths of history: lets not leave it as a legacy for future generations to tackle. It is morally unjust that we live side by side those who have too little to cover basic living costs and who struggle quietly on the side-lines of what is, by comparison to our global neighbours, an affluent society.

It is but equity ... that they, who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged. Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776) Chris Frazer, Social Justice Advocate, the Salvation Armys Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit and Co-ordinator of STOP THE TRAFFIK Aotearoa New Zealand http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---portray/---travail/ documents/publication/wcms_162117.pdf