Fairphone CEO says there is no financial excuse for smartphone manufacturers to pay their workers less than a living wage, as the sustainable electronics manufacturer shares its 2025 Impact Report

Date:
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Description:
We spoke with Fairphone executive Monique Lempers about the need for fairer labor standards in the smartphone industry.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Sustainability Week 2025 This article is part of a series of sustainability-themed articles we're running to observe Earth Day 2026 and promote more sustainable practices. Check out all of our Sustainability Week 2026 content. Fairphone has released its 2025 Impact Report, and the sustainability-focused electronics manufacturer is calling on all smartphone manufacturers to implement a fair living wage across their respective workforces. The annual report details Fairphone's performance and initiatives for the previous calendar year, and the latest edition highlights the need to consider the human impact of smartphone manufacturing, as well as the well-documented environmental cost . In much of the tech industry, impact is still treated like a shadow. It trails the product after launch, after the supply chain is locked, after the story is already written, Monique Lempers, Chief Impact Officer at Fairphone, writes in the report. People should not have to trade their health for a paycheck, and communities should not have to absorb the hidden cost of the worlds electronics. Article continues below You may like Fairphone's Nature Report shows the worrying environmental impact of phones How the smartphone industry can build trust in refurbished devices Battery life just dethroned price as the biggest driver of smartphone purchases

At just over $1 per device, achieving a living wage is a negligible fraction of a smartphone's retail price, Fairphone CEO Raymond van Eck adds, referring to the living wage bonus his company pays to workers to bridge the gap
between their actual wage and the local living wage. There is no financial excuse for the broader industry not to follow suit. Image 1 of 2 An excerpt from Fairphone's 2025 Impact Report detailing its 'living wage bonus' initiative (Image credit: Fairphone) An excerpt from Fairphone's 2025 Impact Report detailing its 'living wage bonus' initiative (Image credit: Fairphone) Fairphone doesnt call out specific manufacturers by name in the report, but Lempers told me in an interview that research confirms a substantial gap between legal minimums and the income required for basic social participation in major manufacturing hubs.

Across the consumer electronics industry, a vast segment of the production workforce earns significantly less than a living wage [...] Generally, this disparity follows a margin-tech correlation: high-tech firms with better margins tend to offer better pay, while lower-tech, lower-margin operations are most likely to have the widest wage gaps.

Its clear, then, that Fairphone hasnt necessarily got large-scale
corporations like Apple and Samsung in its sights. And indeed, in its latest Supply Chain Progress Report , Apple notes that it takes extensive steps to confirm fair and legal compensation of wages and bonuses based on accurate measures of time worked. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from
us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

It should be noted, though, that overseas contractors used by the likes of Apple and Samsung dont necessarily abide by the same standards as their clients.

In 2025, Le Monde reported that the base salary for an iPhone assembler at Foxconn is $295 per month the legal minimum, but just under half the average wage in Zhengzhou. Around 20% of all iPhones are also now assembled in India (via The Financial Times ), and neither China nor India has a legally
mandated national living wage.

Samsung doesnt publish an equivalent annual supply chain report, but in response to a 2024 wage strike at a Samsung plant in India , the company said it maintains absolute compliance with all existing labor laws. What to read next How the heck did phones become so boring? Looking at you, Apple and Samsung but at least theres hope on the horizon If Apple is truly learning from the MacBook Neo, it should return the iPhone to its $199 roots The EU requires phone makers to fit 'readily removable' batteries next year (Image credit: Samsung.com) Evidently, monitoring and enforcing labor standards is a complex undertaking for all multinational tech companies (Apple itself acknowledges that the scale and scope of [its] supply chain make it a complex and dynamic operating environment, stretching across more than 50 countries and regions with varying laws and cultural norms).

But Fairphone which actually published an official guide to paying living wages in a supply chain back in 2022 has outlined three more general strategic changes that it hopes even the largest tech brands can implement moving forward: Design for longevity: By adopting modular, repairable
designs, moving from selling disposable gadgets to supporting long-term ownership, while physically offsetting their waste footprint. Systemic restoration: Moving beyond a risk and 'do no harm' approach, by ensuring living wages for factory workers and by supporting the professionalization
and higher value distribution to artisanal mining to uplift communities
rather than boycotting them. Integrated impact: Ultimately, we want to see that social and ecological health become core business KPIs, ensuring that profit is no longer decoupled from the well-being of the planet and its people. Monique Lempers, Chief Impact Officer at Fairphone (Image credit: Fairphone) The smartphone industry is at least waking up to the importance of sustainable business practices, particularly in Europe, where politicians are actively working to eliminate the concept of planned obsolescence. Recently announced EU laws , for instance, will force all new smartphones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries and at least seven years of spare parts. You can also thank the EU for 'encouraging' Apple to adopt USB-C charging on its iPhones .

But Fairphone wants manufacturers to jump before theyre pushed.

Europes Ecodesign and due diligence rules are raising the floor, while
climate pressure and geopolitical strain are exposing just how fragile global supply chains have become, Lempers says. But compliance is only the starting line. The point is not to do the minimum required. The point is to raise the bar, prove it can be done, and make it impossible for the rest of the
industry to keep pretending change is unrealistic. Today's best Fairphone deals Fairphone Gen 6 525.93 View See all prices Fairphone Fairbuds XL 125.38 View See all prices We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices powered by Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/fairphone-ceo-says-there-is-no-financial-excu se-for-smartphone-manufacturers-to-pay-their-workers-less-than-a-living-wage-a s-the-sustainable-electronics-manufacturer-shares-its-2025-impact-report


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