1. Understanding Poverty
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LAC Equity Lab: Labor Markets - Labor Income Poverty Index (LIPI)

The Labor Income Poverty Index (LIPI)  measures poverty based on the share of households that have less per capita labor income than the regional poverty lines relative to the reference period. The Labor Income Gini Index (LIGI) measures inequality based on labor income (rather than total income) as well.

This dashboard presents the LIPI and the LIGI for countries with available labor force survey data. The LIPI is measured using two regional poverty lines: 1) the extreme poor $3.2-a-day line (2011 PPP); and 2) the poor $5.5-a-day line (2011 PPP). The dashboard also allows one to select the reference period.


The LIPI is based on labor force survey data that is often collected and disseminated with much higher frequency than household survey data. Therefore, the LIPI acts as a leading indicator of poverty.

The LIPI is only available in twelve countries in LAC: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and Uruguay. The LIPI reported here is based on harmonized LABLAC data and, to address the increase in non-response of earnings in the Mexican data, excludes in its Mexico calculations households with members who reported working but did not report income. The latest quarter available for each year is displayed.

The SEDLAC (CEDLAS and WB) harmonization is an effort to increase cross-country comparability. However, methodological changes in the underlying surveys may result in non-comparable data that the harmonization process cannot fully solve. It is important that the user know what data is and is not comparable. For more information, visit the comparability dashboard.