Global wage report 2022-23: the impact of COVID-19 and inflation on wages and purchasing power

The report presents an in-depth empirical analysis of how concurrent crises the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the cost of living crisis have impacted on wages and purchasing power across countries and regions. The report shows that for the first time this century, global real wage growth has become negative while real productivity has continued to grow. Indeed 2022 showed the largest gap recorded since 1999 between real labour productivity growth and real wage growth in high income countries. While the erosion of real wages affects all wage earners, it is having a greater impact on low- income households which spend a higher proportion of their disposable incomes on essential goods and services, the prices of which are increasing faster than those for non-essential items in most countries.