Valuing Impact, together with the Value Balancing Alliance (VBA), has made a Global Living Wage Dataset for 2023/2024 freely available. The dataset, developed by Valuing Impact, is jointly released to maximize its accessibility and impact among businesses, investors, and other stakeholders committed to addressing wage-related impacts. VBA appreciates this valuable contribution and is integrating the dataset into its piloting efforts to advance impact accounting practices.
According to the Global Living Wage Coalition, a living wage is the remuneration received for a standard workweek by a worker in a particular place sufficient to afford a decent standard of living for the worker and her or his family. Elements of a decent standard of living include food, water, housing, education, health care, transportation, clothing, and other essential needs, including provision for unexpected events. Living wages are distinct from minimum wages, which are often insufficient and based on legal mandates, as they reflect the actual cost of living in specific regions.
The Global Living Wage Dataset includes:
Living wage estimates for 218 countries and territories, with primary data for 103 countries.
Wage data for 360 cities, all derived from primary data sources.
Four wage types: typical family, standard family, single individual, and single working parent.
Differentiation between urban and rural wages.
A transparent methodology, aligned with international standards such as Anker & Anker (2017).
The dataset draws on public cost-of-living data from sources like Numbeo and uses a linear regression model to provide estimates for regions without direct data. This approach addresses historical barriers to accessing reliable and affordable living wage data.
A Gateway to Impactful Action
One of the primary objectives of this publication is to fill the existing gap for a cost-free dataset, enabling organizations of all sizes to engage with living wage practices. The dataset serves as an accessible entry point for those beginning to explore the topic. For organizations needing more advanced and granular data, we recommend additional resources such as the datasets provided by the WageIndicator Foundation.
By partnering in this release, Valuing Impact and VBA aim to democratize access to high-quality wage data, enable more organizations to assess wage-related impacts and adopt living wage benchmarks as part of their impact strategies.
For any questions, please reach out to:
Michael Verbücheln - VBA
Samuel Vionnet - Valuing Impact
The following figures are high-level summary from the Global Living Wage Dataset.
The next figure shows the Global Living Wage Dataset on a global map and color-coded for the typical family living wage type for rural conditions. As expected, North America, Europe and Australia show the highest living wages on average while Latin America, Middle-East and Asia show the lowest values.
The choice of living wage type (among the four types made available in the dataset) influences greatly the living wage value, although regional characteristics are even more important at determining the living wage value. Single-working parent living wages show the highest values, while standard and typical family living wage values are very close to each other. Single individual shows the lowest value of the set.
The type of economy and income group classification of countries (using the World Bank classification) is a good predictor of the value of the living wage. In general, cost of living is relatively correlated to price and income levels. However, we observe some inverse relation for rural living wages' estimates which are higher for low-income countries. This might be explained by the lack of existing services or infrastructures, which makes it more expensive to access the same level of living standard. This effect is also observed for urban living wages for low-income countries when compared to lower middle income, although to a lesser extent.
