Income from Employment

average monthly income of the employees in the past [specify number] months

The indicator assesses the average monthly income gained by either 1) the employees whom the project helped to gain employment; or 2) the employees of enterprises that received support to create these new employment positions.

Collect the following data by conducting individual interviews with a representative sample of the target employees:

 

EXAMPLE OF SURVEY QUESTION (Q) AND POSSIBLE ANSWERS (A)

Q1: Can you please tell me the net income you earned from [specify the employment] during each of the past [specify the number] months?

A1: _

1) ……. USD in June

2) ……. USD in July

3) ……. USD in August

(add the required number of months)

 

 

To calculate the indicator's value:

   - for each surveyed employee, calculate her/his average monthly income by dividing the total income earned during the monitored period by the number of months this period covers (e.g. 1,200 USD divided by 3 months = 400 USD per month)

   - sum up the average monthly income of all the surveyed employees and divide it by the number of surveyed employees

Disaggregate the data by type of job (part-time, full-time), types of profession, gender, persons with a disability and other relevant criteria.

1) The vast majority of people – most likely including you – are uncomfortable about telling others about their real income. Respondents may evade questions or give inaccurate answers (for various reasons, such as lack of trust, taxation-related concerns, etc.). Before the data collector starts the interview, s/he needs to gain the respondent's trust – therefore, ensure that the data collectors explain carefully why your agency needs the data, how it will (not) be used and why it is important that the information the respondent provides is correct. You might also consider using intervals (e.g. less than 200 USD, 200 USD to 300 USD, etc.) instead of asking for an exact salary, which could also help.

 

2) An alternative and possibly much easier way of collecting income data is asking the employers to inform you about the salaries they have paid to those employees who benefited from your project’s support (unless this is against a local data protection law). This requirement can already be included in the agreement that specifies the conditions of the project’s support.

 

3) If you supported jobs that provide different incomes over time (as is the case for construction, tourism, agriculture, and many other sectors), ensure that the baseline and endline data is collected for the same period of year (e.g. always for the same 3 months). Otherwise, you might end up with two sets of data that is not comparable.

 

4) As much as possible, verify the stated income from additional sources, such as the employer’s records (payroll) or verbal confirmation.

 

5) If your aim is to ensure that the target group members receive a decent salary for their work, consider rephrasing the indicator to “% of workers with a monthly income of more than [specify the amount and currency]. The amount can be, for example, the minimum income, the average income in the given sector, etc.

6) BHA uses a more general indicator, "% of participants reporting net income from their livelihood".