Status of Inequality Report 2022

Released by Dr Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM)

Compiled by The Institute for Competitiveness

The Report is in 2 parts - 1. Economic Facets of Inequality 2. Socio-Economic Manifestations

1. Economic Facets of Inequality

Data basis: Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2019-20 carried out by National Statistical Office under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Important Points

  1. The annual cumulative wages of India is around Rs. 18,69,91,00,000 (Rs. 1869.91 crores).
  2. The top 1% earned nearly Rs. 1,27,48,00,000 (Rs. 127.48 crores) while the bottom 10% earned Rs. 32,10,00,000 (Rs. 32.10 crores) indicating that the top 1% earns THRICE as much as the bottom 10%.
  3. Top 10% earns 32.52% of the total income.
  4. In 2019-20, 20.71% were casual workers, 45.78% were self-employed and 33.50 were regular salaried.
  5. A monthly salary of minimum Rs 25,000 (Rs 300,000 yearly) is amongst the top 10% of the total wages earned.
  6. Nearly 15% of the entire workforce earns less than Rs. 50,000 p.a. (less than Rs. 5,000 per month).
  7. The overall Labour Force Participation Rate (above 15 years) for 2019-20 is 53.5%.
  8. The Male Labour Force Participation Rate for 2019-20 is 76.8% and the Female Labour Force Participation Rate is 30%.
  9. In 2019-20, WPR (for 15 years and above) was 50.9%.
  10. The country’s unemployment rate for 2019-20 was 4.8%.
  11. Nagaland has the highest UR of 25.8% and Lakshadweep has a UR of 13.7% for 2019-20, the highest for states and UTs respectively.

Note: Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and the Unemployment Rate (UR).

WPR can be defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population, and the Unemployment Rate is measured as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force.