Contact us: digitalwages@ilo.org
Contact us: digitalwages@ilo.org
Digital wage payments (through bank accounts, mobile money wallets or prepaid cards) can benefit workers and enterprises and contribute to achieving public policy goals. But the transition from cash to responsible digital wages brings challenges such as limited financial infrastructure…
Digital financial services offer real hope to help the world get back on track from the severe negative impacts from COVID-19. Building on the success of the 2018 edition, this new version provides updated and extensive evidence-based examples of the benefits…
Since the end of World War II, pairs of countries have entered into over a thousand bilateral labor agreements (BLAs) to regulate the cross-border flow of workers. These agreements have received little public or academic attention. This is likely, in…
Payment digitization efforts in the health sector in low/middle-income countries have accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, research on impacts of worker payment digitization on health systems is lacking. This article offers a conceptual model detailing how payment digitization…
This report assesses the contribution of digital financial services to the economic empowerment and financial inclusion of women workers in the ready-made-garments sector of Bangladesh from May 2020 until December 2021.
Financial inclusion is a cornerstone of development, and since 2011, the Global Findex Database has been the definitive source of data on global access to financial services from payments to savings and borrowing. The 2021 edition, based on nationally representative…
To assess the market potential for digital wage payments in Cambodia’s garment sector (which employs approximately 80% female workers), the research team interviewed representatives of the three main stakeholder groups—factories, financial service providers, and workers — as well as other…
Using data from a Mexican FinTech firm, the authors study the usage by workers of earned wages access. They find usage to be significant and concentrated towards the end of the pay cycle. They document that such usage is associated…
The authors use data from a leading fintech firm in Korea, including transaction-level data on international remittance payments to developing Asia and referral data among users, to study the role of social networks in helping low-income workers optimize their use…
This report seeks to identify the barriers to expanding access to and usage of formal financial services in Jamaica, with a view to remedying them.