Lane Kenworthy, The Good Society
October 2021
LOW-END INCOMES
The following charts show household incomes at the tenth percentile. The incomes include government transfers and subtract taxes. For most countries we have two data sources: the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) and the OECD.
Figure A1. Tenth-percentile household income
Thick lines: Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) data. Thin lines: OECD data. Posttransfer-posttax household income. The incomes are adjusted for household size (the numbers on the vertical axis are for a household with three persons), adjusted for inflation, and converted to US dollars using purchasing power parities. “k” = thousand.
LOW-END INCOMES BY GDP PER CAPITA
To what degree does economic growth reach households on the lower part of the income ladder? Figure A2 shows tenth-percentile household income by GDP per capita since 1979.
Figure A2. Tenth-percentile household income by GDP per capita
The data points are years. 1979-2019. The lines are linear regression lines. Household incomes are posttransfer-posttax, adjusted for household size and then rescaled to reflect a three-person household. Household incomes and GDP per capita are adjusted for inflation and converted to US dollars using purchasing power parities. “k” = thousand. Data sources: OECD; Luxembourg Income Study.