How Journalists And Researchers Can Use The Living Tariff Tool
The Living Tariff tool provides a practical means of calculating the net income of gig and platform workers after expenses. How can researchers and journalists use it to their advantage when creating data-driven stories and supporting investigations into wage inequality and the rising cost of living?
26 May 2026
What income does an Uber driver need for a decent standard of living? Do high costs for freelance web designers mean they earn below minimum wage? Journalists and researchers looking to tell strong, data-driven human stories about work and wages, particularly in the platform sector, now have a powerful free tool at their fingertips.
The WageIndicator Living Tariff Tool is a free, online, public resource. It helps explain what gig workers, freelancers and self-employed workers really need to earn to survive sustainably. The tool calculates the personal daily income required to meet a “living tariff” - and unlike a standard wage calculator, it goes beyond basic living costs. It helps answer a simple but important question:
“How much does a worker really need to earn per day to live decently and sustainably?”
The WageIndicator Living Tariff Tool is designed to help individuals calculate their work-related expenses such as:
- Equipment and tools
- Internet and phone costs
- Transport and overheads
- Waiting time between jobs
- Taxes and social security contributions
- Savings for illness, emergencies and retirement
The Living Tariff Tool helps users understand the true cost of self-employment and platform work. The tool was developed through a collaboration between WageIndicator and GIZ. It was created to address one of the biggest challenges facing gig workers: determining fair compensation. The tool allows workers to calculate a Living Tariff according to:
- Their occupation
- Their location
- Local living costs
Living Tariff is currently available in six countries:
How researchers and journalists can use the Living Tariff Tool:
- It helps journalists move beyond headline earnings and examine what workers actually take home after expenses.
- Researchers can use the tool to better understand the hidden costs of gig and freelance work.
- It provides a practical framework for analysing income insecurity in the platform economy.
- Journalists can use the tool to test whether platform workers are earning enough to achieve a sustainable standard of living.
- It offers data-driven context for stories about labour rights, low pay and precarious work.
- Researchers can compare living tariffs across different countries, sectors and occupations.
- The tool helps explain why “flexible work” is not always financially sustainable.
- It gives reporters concrete figures to support stories about delivery workers, drivers, freelancers and other self-employed workers.
- Trade union researchers can use the tool to strengthen arguments around fair pay and social protection.
- It helps expose the gap between advertised platform earnings and the real costs workers carry themselves.
- The tool can support investigations into wage inequality and the rising cost of living.
- Journalists can use it to humanise economic stories with relatable, real-world calculations.
- It is useful for stories linked to inflation, unemployment, digital labour platforms and informal work.
- Researchers can use the calculations to support policy analysis and advocacy work.
- The tool helps quantify costs that are often ignored in discussions about self-employment, such as equipment, waiting time and retirement savings.
- It provides accessible data that can strengthen evidence-based reporting.
- Journalists can use it to compare conditions between traditional employment and gig work.
- It can help uncover whether workers are effectively subsidising platforms through unpaid expenses and downtime.
- The tool offers an easy way to illustrate the difference between a minimum wage and a sustainable living income.
The Living Tariff Tool gives journalists and researchers a practical, data-driven way to understand what gig and self-employed workers really need to earn to live sustainably. By exposing the hidden costs behind platform and freelance work, it helps bring greater depth, accuracy and human insight to stories about labour, wages and economic justice.
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