Advancing social justice,LOI Flagship Report
promoting decent work
The International Labour This report examines the evolution of real wages around the world,
Organization is the United giving a unique picture of wage trends globally, by region and at
Nations agency for the world country level. The current edition includes new evidence on how
of work. We bring together the COVID-19 crisis and recent inflation have impacted on wages
governments, employers and and purchasing power across countries and regions up until the
workers to drive a human-centred middle of 2022.
approach to the future of work
Using quarterly survey data from a selection of countries
through employment creation,
representing different geographic regions and income groups, the
rights at work, social protection
report shows that, although the erosion of real wages affects all
and social dialogue.
wage earners, the current cost-of-living crisis is having a greater
impact among low-income households. These losses come on top
of significant wage losses incurred by workers and their families
during the COVID-19 pandemic, losses that were greater among
low-paid workers, women wage employees and wage workers in
the informal economy. The report provides a review of possible
countervailing policies that could support economic recovery, help
workers and their families, and potentially reduce inequalities in
the world of work.
“This well thought through, highly informative and
very timely report forcefully demonstrates that a
failure to adjust nominal wages could – in the absence
of adequate policy – lead to a massive increase in
inequality and poverty, threatening the livelihoods
of countless workers and their families, while
endangering economic recovery across the globe.”
Timo Weishaupt
University of G"ottingen
X Global
Wage
Report
2022–23
The impact of
inflation and
COVID-19 on
wages and
purchasing power
ilo
International Labour Organization
Route des Morillons 4
1211 Geneva 22
Switzerland Global Wage Report 2022–23
The impact of inflation and COVID-19
on wages and purchasing power
International Labour OrganizationoGenevaCopyright (c) International Labour Organization 2022
First published 2022
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ISBN 9789220365113 (print); ISBN 9789220365120 (web PDF); ISBN 9789220381267 (html)
doi/10.54394/ZLFG5119
wages / purchasing power / COVID-19 / wage differential / inflation / wage policy / report
13.07
ILO Cataloguing in Publication Data
Also available in French: Rapport mondial sur les salaires 2022-23: l’impact de l’inflation et du COVID-19 sur les salaires
et le pouvoir d’achat, ISBN 9789220365076 (print), 9789220365083 (web PDF), 9789220381274 (html); and in Spanish:
Informe Mundial sobre Salarios 2022-2023: El impacto de la inflación y de la COVID-19 en los salarios y el poder adquisitivo,
ISBN 9789220365090 (print), 9789220365106 (web PDF), 9789220381281 (html)
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Code: DESIGN/WEI/PMSERVPreface3
X Preface
This year’s ILO Global Wage Report, the eighth inexpected to continue and lead to a fall in aggregate
the series, presents an in-depth empirical analysis demand. This would increase the probability of a
of how concurrent crises – the COVID-19 pandemicdeeper recession, a risk that is already worsening
followed by the cost-of-living crisis – have impacted due to the restrictive monetary policies adopted
on wages and purchasing power across countries by central banks in their efforts to bring down
and regions. The report shows that, for the firstinflation. This in turn would endanger the economic
time this century, global real wage growth has and employment recovery, further increasing
become negative while real productivity has inequalities and fuelling social unrest.
continued to grow. Indeed, 2022 shows the largest
In this time of growing social and economic
gap recorded since 1999 between real labour
uncertainties and insecurity, it is vital to rebuild
productivity growth and real wage growth in high-
and strengthen people’s sense of social justice and
income countries. While the erosion of real wages
social cohesion. The ILO Constitution emphasizes
affects all wage earners, it is having a greater
that “universal and lasting peace can be established
impact on low-income households which spend a
only if it is based upon social justice” and calls for
higher proportion of their disposable incomes on
“equal remuneration for work of equal value” and
essential goods and services, the prices of which
“policies in regard to wages and earnings (…) to
are increasing faster than those for non-essential
ensure a just share of the fruits of progress to all”.
items in most countries.
The last chapter in this report suggests a series
The decline in real wages has come on top ofof policy measures that could serve to shape
significant wage losses incurred by workers and adequate wage policies and therefore contribute
their families during the COVID-19 crisis. Usingto enhancing people’s sense of social justice while
quarterly data, the report finds that the key factor reducing inequalities in the world of work.
behind the decline in