Based on the latest Quarterly Occupation and Income Survey (ETOI), the General Directorate of Statistics and Censuses of the City of Buenos Aires reported that in the first quarter of 2024 “the average total family income is located at $843,445, which represents an increase of 196.8% compared to the same period of the previous year, 67 percentage points below the increase corresponding to the IPCBA (CABA Consumer Price Index, of 263.8%). “A deterioration is observed in the income distribution, both at the individual and household level,” official sources warn.
“In a context of reduced activity and employment rates, individual income grows nominally in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period of the previous year (198.3%). The evolution of prices in the period (263.8%) is higher than the dynamics of labor income (206.4%) and especially that of non-labor income (183.2%), which translates into a loss of purchasing power, with repercussions on the living conditions of the City’s households. Within labor income, the salaried population presents an increase of 212.4%, being far behind the increase of the self-employed (155.3%). In non-labor income, the delay in retirements and pensions (154.8%) in relation to inflation stands out,” the report summarizes.
“On significantly lower values, households residing in the South of the City have an interannual increase of 196.9% ($696,784), below those in the North, whose increase was 219.7% ($1,016,440). In the Center, total family income rises 187.0% ($822,981),” the document stated.
“The total average family income in the City is 3.3% higher than the value of the total basket for a household made up of a 35-year-old male and female couple, economically active and homeowners with two male children aged 6 and 9 years”, mentions the official study. In relation to the same period in 2023, the purchasing capacity of total family income with respect to the basket decreased.
It was also reported that The per capita family income of households averages $436,149, 186.9% above that registered in the same quarter of 2023. In households in the North of the City this income stands at $600,077, while which in the Center is $417,814 and in the South $294,446 (representing increases of 200.9%, 175.6% and 213.9%, respectively)
Households in the North, in addition to having better individual incomes, have fewer members on average, so they have a higher per capita family income, which is more than twice that of the South.
The 30% of households with the lowest per capita income account for 36.8% of the people but only 12.2% of the total income. At the same time, those in the top 30% involve 22.8% of residents and more than half of the income group (53.2%).
Individual income, from labor and non-labor sources, reaches $526,482, with a year-on-year increase of 198.3%, close to that of total family income. In the North zone, the increase was 211.7%, in the Center 190.1% and in the South 205.7%.
On average, the income of the population in the North zone is 84.8% higher than those in the South zone. Labor income expands above non-labor income (206.4% and 183.2% respectively).
Income from the main occupation amounted to $510,758 in the period, which marks a year-on-year growth of 209.4%.
Half of male workers earn less than $400,000 and half of female workers earn less than $380,000.
The 10% of employed people with the lowest income earn less than $130,000 in their main occupation. In contrast, the 10% of those with the best income exceed $1,000,000. On average, the bottom decile earns more than 21 times what the top decile earns.
With an average of 38 hours worked per week for the entire employed population, men log 41 hours and women 35 hours.
The income of the salaried population reaches an average of $523,070, marking an interannual growth of 212.4%. Meanwhile, self-employed workers receive $365,927, with a year-on-year dynamic (155.3%) that is well below that corresponding to prices (263.8%).
Within non-labor income, retirements and pensions are the ones with the greatest loss of purchasing power in the last year, with a variation of 154.8%.
Regarding the distribution of income, there is a deterioration in the measurements of both individuals and households.
The Gini coefficient of total family income is located at 0.431 (up from the same period of the previous year, when it was 0.388). For the population, family per capita income increases to 0.443 (from 0.421 a year before), in this case also marking greater inequality. Something similar occurs for the employed population, for which the Gini of income from the main occupation is 0.421, above that corresponding to the same period in 2023, when it was 0.389.
