Building Trust in Labor Markets through Blockchain-Enabled Wage Transparency: A Pathway to Fair Labor Practices and Inclusive Growth

Abstract

The increasing transparency, accountability, and fairness in the labour practises can also be regarded as a potentially highly promising opportunity offered by blockchain technology, which would directly lead to the purpose of Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8) to steer towards a decent work and inclusive economic development. This article discusses the application of blockchain that can be strategically adopted to preserve wage transparency, prevent labour exploitation, and be accountable in correcting the fair employment standards in both formal and informal sectors. Smart contracts, responsible ledgers, and decentralised validation are utilised in blockchain to track the employment conditions, payrolls integrity, and violation of labour rights in real time. The examples of the cases in the international supply chains and pilot programmes in the low-income countries testify that it may reduce wage theft, reinforce the ethical sourcing and create confidence in the employer and the employees. In pursuit of the mass adoption, the article also discussed the problem of regulations, technical and ethical considerations like data privacy, scale, digital literacy that may be a threat. It emphasises multi-stakeholder collaboration between governments, technology suppliers, and labour unions to integrate blockchain into its entire potential in terms of contribution to SDG 8. Policy recommendations and strategic roads of action in the direction of integrating blockchain into the labour governance structures are the final elements of the article.