2023
Is it enough minimum wage to finance household life?
Entry type: Single project
Country/area: Indonesia
Publishing organisation: Katadata Indonesia
Organisation size: Small
Publication date: 2022-11-23
Language: Indonesia, English
Authors: Vika Azkiya Dihni
Biography:
The author is part of the data journalism team at Katadata Indonesia. The author writes articles on various topics such as business economics, social, to politics based on data.
Project description:
The minimum wage is the lower limit of the salary received by workers in each region in Indonesia. For workers who are single or not married, the standard salary is still enough to meet their living needs for a month. However, in contrast to workers who have families and married, they tend to have difficulty bearing monthly living expenses, other than for themselves.
Impact reached:
Each region has a different minimum wage value. Even though the minimum wage has increased, inflation continues to cause the cost of living to become more expensive as the prices of goods and services increase.
Government policies are urgently needed so that the setting of the minimum wage is above the minimum living needs of the workforce, especially workers who are married and also have children. Attention to the minimum wage is also directed at increasing the welfare of workers.
Techniques/technologies used:
The data used in this article comes from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS). When doing data processing, the author uses Microsoft Excel, and for visualization, the author uses Flourish.
Context about the project:
In addition to processing data sourced from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), in this article, the author conducts interviews with single and married informants whose monthly income is equivalent to the minimum wage. As a result, this minimum wage standard only considers the cost of living for single workers.
Data shows that the minimum wage in a number of cities in Indonesia does not necessarily cover the living expenses of workers who are already married. Government policy is needed to determine wages above the minimum living needs of workers, especially workers who are already married.
What can other journalists learn from this project?
The use of data is needed to support the results of the interviews conducted by the author in this article.
Project links:
