ILO

Back to index

Global Scale of Digital Wages - Final evaluation

eval_number:

3257

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/3257

location:

country:

Inter-Regional

region:

Inter-Regional

---

eval_title:

Global Scale of Digital Wages - Final evaluation

recommendations:

date:

2026-06-10 00:00:00.0

themes:

theme:

International Labour Standards

category:

Labour standards

---

comments:

During the first phase of the project (2020-2025), the team has progressively built, through stakeholder engagement, solid relationships with government institutions (central banks, ministries of labour, finance, commerce/industry, etc.), employers’ and workers’ organizations, financial sector industry associations at country levels, on the topic of responsible digital wage payments and banking practices. The second phase of the project is building on these initial efforts and helping to pave the way for: i) policy reforms that facilitate and encourage the adoption of digital wage payments (e.g. Peru, Cambodia, Philippines); and ii) the integration of digital wage payments into broader public policy objectives related to decent work, including formalization, compliance, enterprise digitization, financial inclusion, and financial consumer protection (e.g. Peru, Indonesia, Cambodia). In parallel, the team is coordinating its efforts with relevant ongoing ILO work on formalization, decent work in supply chains, fair migration, digitalization, etc... at country, regional, and global levels to ensure the lessons learnt and evidence drawn from the project second phase are reflected in ILO programmatic and technical documents. The increased visibility of the topic of digital wage payments within ILO regular institutional dialogue mechanisms is expected to encourage more tripartite constituents to recognize and actively promote them as an effective tool for advancing wage protection, formalization, financial inclusion, and decent work, including through national labour policies.

management_response:

Completed

progress:

Achieved

admin_units:

SFU

title:

Recommendation 6: Explore pathways to integrate digital wages into core labour standards Justification: The project conducted an extensive global review of labour policies to identify how digital wages are reflected in existing normative and policy frameworks. Drawing on these inputs, it produced an analytical brief and reported that these findings were useful in informing discussions with constituents at the country and global levels. However, it remains uncertain to what extent, and through which concrete mechanisms, the project will contribute to fostering the widespread adoption of good practices and standards on digital wages by ILO Member States (Outcome 5). Moreover, several stakeholders called for stronger integration of digital wages into pertinent policy and normative frameworks. Possible actions: In relation to the assessment of Outcome 5 and complementary to recommendation 4, the project could explore and establish instruments to systematically steer digital wage standard-setting at both country and global levels through existing ILO mechanisms. This could include dedicated convenings and structured multi-stakeholder collaboration (worker representatives, employers, financial service providers, and government) to translate the evidence into policy actions and regulatory guidance that can drive change at scale. For example, the project could develop a guide on how to incorporate digital wages into global, regional, and national strategies, to be used not only by the project team but also by constituents and partners. Suggestions by interviewees As part of the interviews, stakeholders were asked whether they had suggestions how to strengthen the project further. The following lists summarises the suggestions of 36 stakeholders, synthesised in nine clusters. • Strategic direction and targeting: Embed initiatives in national frameworks; create a clear results measurement framework with measurable outcomes; focus on fewer priorities with deeper engagement; allocate budgets toward implementation rather than central overhead. • Data, evidence and M&E: Strengthen M&E systems; collect disaggregated data; publish and use diagnostics; build replicable models; document methodologies for scale. • Policy and regulatory environment: Formalise digital wage and pay-slip requirements; conduct risk mapping before regulation; improve inter-agency coordination; base reforms on evidence; ensure consumer protection and fraud awareness. • Stakeholder engagement and governance: Strengthen multi-stakeholder/dialogue platforms; deepen engagement with unions and sceptical groups; identify and support local champions; ensure participatory and ownership-building processes. • Gender and inclusion: Systematically integrate gender and social inclusion; document gender-related risks; tailor approaches to vulnerable groups, informal workers, and rural populations; prioritise youth and women in capacity-building. • Capacity building and training: Expand financial and digital literacy training; make training continuous and practical; finalise training/monitoring tools before rollout; provide coaching/mentoring systems; avoid “makeshift” digitalisation by linking training to real problem statements. • Implementation design and delivery: Ensure behavioural-change approaches (not only tech); allow more time for implementation and evaluation; provide post-training accompaniment; simplify materials; tailor interventions by sector and firm size. • Financial infrastructure and FSP support: Improve system reliability; reduce transaction fees; strengthen technical support from financial service providers (FSP); ensure agent readiness; provide helpdesks during peak times; support onboarding (documents, app installation). • Enterprise and worker support: Provide practical factory/enterprise-level assistance; expand bank choice and access points; ensure ATMs/agents are available; deliver real (not promotional) financial literac

project_symbols:

GLO/20/34/GAT

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/recommendations/2376542

information_source:

Head Quarters

---