The latest Asia Floor Wage released in 2022 is 1600 PPP$ per month
For Asian countries where Consumption Survey was done
| Country Name | PPP Conversion Factor 2022 | Local Currency for 1600 PPP$ |
| Bangladesh | 33 | 53,104 Takas |
| Cambodia | 1,490 | 2,894,415 Riel (701 USD) |
| India | 21 | 33,920 Indian Rupees |
| Indonesia | 5,067 | 8,107,632 Rupiah |
| Myanmar | 435 | 695,536 Kyat |
| Pakistan | 42 | 67,200 Pakistan Rupees |
| Sri Lanka | 59 | 94,400 Sri Lanka Rupees |
*Some countries have seen high inflation rates since the surveys were completed in early 2022. The living wage figures may be an under-representation in these cases.
For Asian countries where Consumption Survey was not done
| Country Name | PPP Conversion Factor | Local Currency for 1600 PPP$ |
| China | 4 | 6,512 Yuan |
| Thailand | 12 | 19,648 Baht |
| Vietnam | 7,902 | 12,642,736 Dong |
| Philippines | 20 | 32,208 Pesos |
Read more about how the AFW was calculated in our report [Download PDF]
Calculating a Living Wage
The Asia Floor Wage Alliance base their calculations on the following assumptions:
- A worker needs to be able to support themselves and two other “consumption units”. (1 consumption unit = 1 adult or 2 children)
- An adult requires 3,000 calories a day to be able to carry out physical labor.
- In Asia, food costs account for nearly half of a worker’s monthly expenditure; and non-food for the other half. In 2020, AFWA’s surveys with workers found that the ratio of food to non-food expenses had changed to 45:55 as the costs of daily necessities had gradually increased.
The Asia Floor Wage must be earned for a work week of maximum 48 hours, not including bonuses, allowances or benefits.
The Asia Floor Wage is calculated in PPP$ – Purchasing Power Parity $, which is an imaginary World Bank currency built on the consumption of goods and services by people, allowing the standard of living between countries to be compared regardless of the national currency.
The Asia Floor Wage is revised periodically by conducting Fresh Food basket surveys, and within intervening years by the use of a formulation based on the Consumer Price Index. In 2022, AFWA used the Consumption Survey instead of the Food Basket survey to calculate the food as well as non-food consumption expenditures of an Asian worker.
The latest Asia Floor Wage figure came out in 2022 and is valid for a period of 2-3 years. The figure is PPP$ 1600.
See the above table for how this translates into local currencies.
Living Wage calculations outside of Asia
The Asia Floor Wage calculation cannot be simply applied to other regions as some of the assumptions do not apply. For example, food costs account for nearly half of the income. This is the case in Asia where food costs are relatively high and standards of living such as housing are very low. However, in other regions such as Eastern Europe, food costs are relatively lower when compared to housing.
Seven Steps to Calculating a Living Wage
Step 1 – Each country conducts the actual calorie intake per person (per capita) per month in a family on the basis of 3,000 calories consumed by one adult per day.
Step 2 – Calculate the expenditure for actual calorie intake per person (per capita) per month in a family. (Calorie content of each food item is adopted from the National Nutrition Databases or the World Health Organisation (WHO) food and nutrition standards.)
Calculate the expenditure for 3,000 calorie intake for a family of 3 Consumption Units to arrive at a Food Cost for a family for a month.
Step 3 – Calculate the actual ratio of food and non-food expenses of the family for a month. In 2020, AFWA’s International Steering Committee made a decision to use a weightage of 45%-55% for the calculation of food to non-food expenditures.
Using the ratio, calculate the expenditure of non-food expenses for a family of 3 Consumption Units for a month.
Step 4 – Add up the food and non-food expenses of a family of 3 Consumption Units for a month to estimate the AFW for each country.
Step 5 – These country-level figures are then converted to PPP$ using the PPP Conversion Factors decided by the World Bank. This results in a range of country-wise PPP$ figures.
Step 6 – In order to come up with a regional AFW PPP$ figure, AFWA’s partnering trade unions from across Asia arrive at a consensus on a specific PPP$ figure from the range. This becomes the official AFW figure in PPP$.
Step 7 – Convert the common AFW Figure in PPP$ back to local currencies to get the Asia Floor Wage or the Living Wage for a specific country.