Living Wages in Indonesia: From Megacities to Remote Villages

“You Got An Email”: Becoming a Data Collector in Indonesia

Novi works as a journalist for a local media company in Tanjung Pinang. It’s the capital city of the province of Riau Islands. She can reach Singapore in two hours, if she takes a ferry. Novi has been working in this part of Indonesia for some time now. Given her field of work, she knows the geography and has strong connections across the archipelago, which comprises several small surrounding islands. One day, she received an email. “We collect cost-of-living data in 190 countries around the world, including Indonesia," they said, “We would like to cover your province, too.” The email was from the WageIndicator Indonesia team. Novi had heard about this organisation and their work. After a clarification about the timeline, pay and logistics, Novi officially accepted.

Now, whenever data collection occurs in the Riau Islands, she is always contacted to assist the WageIndicator Indonesia team with price surveys. The goal is to provide the freshest and most accurate prices for different categories, from food to housing to transport, and to enable the calculation of Living Wages in Indonesia. “It’s rewarding to help workers understand how much they need to earn to cover their basic expenses. I feel like I’m making a tangible difference to people’s day-to-day lives.”

Living Wages in Indonesia: Collecting Cost-of-Living Data From Megacities to Remote Villages

To gather local prices for Living Wage estimates in Indonesia, Novi doesn't work alone. Collecting cost-of-living data requires a team effort. Home to over 280 million people living on thousands of islands, Indonesia is both the world’s fourth most populous country and its largest archipelago. Spanning more than 17,000 islands, it is divided into 38 provinces and seven major regions: Sumatra in the west; Java in the centre, the most populous island, home to the capital area of Jakarta; Kalimantan and Sulawesi, rich in natural resources; Nusa Tenggara, the island chain stretching east of Java; the Maluku Islands; and Papua, the easternmost region, home to some of the country’s most remote communities.

Few countries pack so many worlds into one map: dense cities, remote rural villages, and vast plantations, each with their own unique geography, infrastructure and rhythm of life. Since 2014, a group of WageIndicator data collectors have travelled across the country to capture these differences.

Each quarter, they select and visit three provinces and interview local people about their living expenses, laying the foundations for calculating cost-of-living-based Living Wages in Indonesia. “We assign two people to each province and conduct interviews with at least 30 respondents,” Fakhri says. “This allows us to cover all the districts within each province, starting with those closest to the towns and working outwards to those furthest away.” Just as important is to select a variety of respondents: “Through a number of friends and relatives, as well as through some partnership programmes with key trade unions in several sectors, we have gained contact with workers in urban and sub-urban areas, on plantations and in remote locations.”

Why On-The-Ground Data Matters For Living Wages in Indonesia

In a country this varied, fieldwork can be a valuable tool for assessing the cost of living on the ground and filling in the information gaps. This data makes it possible to estimate the income required for workers to live comfortably and provide for their families. “Indonesia has no single national minimum wage,” Novi adds. “Provinces and regencies are responsible for setting their own rates based on a precise wage-setting system, and industries can operate under sectoral Minimum Wages. In such a complex context, a reform takes effect every January, and the statutory minimum wages in many Indonesian provinces are adjusted for a year. As a result of the reform that was passed in January 2026, variations still remain between districts and sectors, but the key point was to calculate wages not only on inflation and economic growth, but also on decent living needs. This approach was established some time ago, when a 2023 Constitutional Court decision reinforced the need to combine economic indicators with cost-of-living (Kebutuhan Hidup Layak or KHL) considerations in wage calculations.”

Comparing Living Wages Across Indonesia's Islands: Same Country, (Very) Different Prices

Asked what matters the most in her work as a data collector, Andina points out that it's all about providing insights into how people actually live and what they really need to meet their basic needs. “We can shed light on real household budgets.”

Prices vary significantly across Indonesia. As Fakhri loves to say, “A rupiah doesn’t stretch the same everywhere”, and if this is true for many countries, in Indonesia prices differ sharply from one province to the next. Logistical costs, geographical challenges, and the state of the regional supply chain all play a part. “Java and Sumatra benefit from direct agricultural output and shorter logistics routes,” he explains. “Outer and eastern regions, such as Papua Pegunungan, South Papua, North Maluku, and Kalimantan, experience higher inflation due to transport bottlenecks and heavy reliance on inter-island shipping.” To protect citizens against the impact of global oil prices, “the Indonesian government maintains a dual-track pricing system that keeps the prices of heavily used subsidised fuels frozen. At the same time, ships travelling between islands rely on non-subsidised or commercial diesel to transport goods nationwide.”

Here is where the numbers get interesting. Annual inflation in Indonesia reached 3.28% in September 2026, mainly driven by food and basic commodity shortages and further compounded by energy costs; but if we look at the figures posted by the provinces, inflation varies considerably, ranging from 7.59% in North Sulawesi to 2.55% in Sumatra.

Other data shows that, although the average per capita expenditure in rural areas across Indonesia is generally lower than in urban areas (Consumption Expenditure of the Population of Indonesia, March 2025), Southwest Papua is a notable exception. In this province, the average monthly expenditure per person in rural areas is slightly higher than in urban areas. “Infrastructure is limitedly developed”.

Gathering data across different provinces can illuminate these regional disparities, as Fakhri stresses: “People on the outer islands pay higher prices than those living in Java, and this is the kind of information that should be placed at the forefront.”

This is reflected in people's day-to-day lives and can reshape their major life events. “I once interviewed a friend of mine in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, whose family lives in Java,” Andina says. “Every year, he returns to his hometown to celebrate mudik, the Eid celebrations marking the end of Ramadan. For him, it remains an affordable and flexible option. His family can easily split the costs of tolls and fuel, and he can choose whether to travel by car on interconnected highways or by train. In contrast, when I spoke to a respondent who had to travel to Kalimantan for the same reason, he told me that it would mean facing higher costs, including expensive airline tickets and riverboat fares. There was no option for him to share the expenses, and due to the poor infrastructure, he would probably have to rent a car or a motorcycle to get home. Eventually, he was considering cancelling his holiday trip home and postponing it until next year.”