"A fair tech industry isn't impossible. It costs a dollar per phone."

Here's a preview of what Fairphone Chief Impact and Operating Officer Monique Lempers discussed at this year's UN Private Sector Forum and the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit, where she spoke about why we need to bring human rights to the core of corporate strategy and the need for implementing living wages across supply chains as soon as possible. 

Ending poverty wages and dangerous mining conditions in consumer tech isn't an idealistic dream. It is actionable right now. By adding just $1.05 to the cost of a smartphone, Fairphone pays factory workers a true living wage and directly funds safe, ethical mineral extraction. If a company of our scale can transform global supply chains, multi-billion-dollar tech giants have zero excuses not to follow lead.

Ethical tech isn't a margin problem; it's a priority problem. Here is the blueprint we built to prove it.

Bridging the Living Wage Gap

Electronics factory workers routinely earn a base pay of just $16–$17 per day, forcing 16-hour shifts to survive. WageIndicator benchmarks show a decent living wage requires $23 a day. Fairphone's Living Wage Bonus Program bridges this gap directly on the line:

- Micro-Investment: Adding just $1.05 per Fairphone (and under $0.55 per accessory) covers the wage gap.

- Collective Fairness: Because assembly lines are shared, our bonus payments are split equally among all lower-paid workers in the facility—whether they touched a Fairphone or not.

- Proven Impact: In 2025, we distributed $215,000 across five facilities, lifting 1,650 workers to living wages and pushing our lifetime payout past $1.25 million.

Ethical Sourcing Beyond Direct Line-of-Sight

Smartphones require over 60 raw materials. Where complex upstream supply chains become opaque, we deploy innovative mass-balance credit systems to fund direct, safety-first transformation on the ground. 

The Blueprint is Open. Scale It With Us.

Real transformation requires moving beyond basic compliance and PR promises. Fairphone has proven that a fairer business model is viable today. And our credit schemes are open-source. If multi-billion-dollar competitors duplicate our living wage bonus and adopt our mineral credit model, millions of factory workers and artisanal miners can be lifted out of poverty overnight.

Explore our full supply chain data in our latest Impact Report, or partner with us via the Fair Cobalt Alliance and Fairmined Credits.