Photo credit: Samuel Stacey, WorldFish
Anker living wage and living income Benchmark estimates will be updated by the Anker Research Institute on an annual basis starting in 2022. This is a change from previous years when estimates were updated every other year. Annual updates to account for inflation are important to ensure that living wage and living income estimates (i.e., family living costs) continue to be sufficient for workers to afford a basic but decent standard of living. Without updates, living wage and income estimates become outdated because the purchasing power of the living wage and living income would decrease because of inflation.
Also starting in 2022, the way in which Anker living wage and living income estimates are updated will change. All updates will be published between March and July every year. This is a change from when estimates were updated throughout the year according to the month of the original study (i.e., to January for a study done in January, to June for a study done in June, etc.). These changes have three distinct advantages:
- Update releases will be more predictable, benefitting all who use our values;
- Updated estimates will be more comparable, as they will all be updated to the same time period and;
- Updated estimates will represent the average living wage and living income for the year (e.g., for 2022, 2023, and so forth).
This will be accomplished by updating the original living wage and living income estimates by inflation to December of the previous year (e.g., to December 2021 for the 2022 update), and then adding expected inflation for the coming year (e.g., for 2022) according to sources such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This will provide average living wage and living income estimates for the year (e.g., for 2022).
Living wage updates will also reflect the income taxes and mandatory payroll deductions on the updated living wage. This will be done using laws at the time of the update.
