Cost of Living in Latin America: Inside WageIndicator's Data Collection Network
Understanding the cost of living in Latin America means knowing what people actually pay for food, transport, and housing, country by country, quarter by quarter. Luis makes that possible. As WageIndicator's coordinator for Latin America, he oversees a network of supervisors and data collectors across 19 countries. In this interview, he shares how the network grows, why accuracy matters, and what this work means to the people doing it on the ground.
31 March 2026
Every time someone checks what a Living Wage looks like in Latin America, they are relying on data collected by real people in markets, streets, and neighborhoods across the region. Luis is one of the people who makes that happen. As WageIndicator's coordinator for Latin America, he manages a growing network of supervisors and data collectors spread across 19 countries, who fan out across the region every quarter. In this interview, he shares how the network grows organically, why data accuracy matters, and what it means to the people doing this vital work on the ground.
“It's like a snowball rolling down a hill: people tell their friends and family about it, and more people join.” Luis is a WageIndicator manager of Cost of Living supervisors and data collectors in Latin America. He describes how they recruit team members, the importance of making sure their data is accurate and diverse, and why people take pride in collecting this vital information. Through their work, Luis and his team play a key role in calculating Living Wages and Cost of Living estimates in Latin America.
Living Wages and Cost of Living Data Collection across Latin America
Luis’ family is from Guatemala, and he has houses in both Mexico and Guatemala. WageIndicator recruited him via his sister Irena, who previously did research with WageIndicator in Central America. He and his team currently work in 19 countries in Latin America. Each country has its own supervisor. “I manage these supervisors. I know some of them from other research projects I've done, and I've developed a strong relationship with these partners over time. This has helped the network grow,” explains Luis.
Every year, WageIndicator identifies a list of regions in Latin America to cover with Cost of Living data collection. Then it is the supervisors' job to find the data collectors.
“When I receive the assignment, I talk to my supervisors. They either find people located in different places, or send people to the regions we need to cover. I usually look for a supervisor in an urban area, and they talk to many people around, and ask them if they want to do this job,” explains Luis. “Some of them might say: ‘No, I can't do that,’ but they have a cousin, a friend, or other contacts who can. It's like a snowball rolling down a hill: people tell their friends and family about it, and more people join.” Data collectors collect data four times a year, and each time the regions change. The people do as well. Each quarter, different people collect data, in different regions.
Do team members work full time for WageIndicator?
People don't usually work full-time on this, which is the reality in many Latin American countries, where people often have more than one job. (By the way, Luis doesn't work on this full time, either. He works in audit processes and also does mystery shopping in the automotive industry.) “The supervisors are really good at explaining the advantages of this job, how it can provide an income and allow data collectors to plan in advance, especially as we assign regions at the beginning of a new year,” says Luis.
How are WageIndicator data collectors trained? What instructions do they get?
Luis and the supervisors identify what areas they need information from, and they delegate these to the data collectors. “We tell them we need information from such and such areas and they need to gather it from different places, especially in busy areas like marketplaces,” says Luis. The aim is to gather a diverse group of interviewees of different ages and backgrounds to make the sample as varied as possible. Supervisors check in with the data collectors to keep everybody updated on how many interviews have been conducted and where. “We keep track of everything all the time,” says Luis.
How is WageIndicator Cost of Living data collected in Latin America?
After collectors have been trained, they interview people and ask how much they spend on different things. This includes food, transportation, housing, utilities, other family expenses (such as clothing, school fees, drinking water, etc.), occupational items (vehicle costs, laptop, data plan etc.), personal and health care, and social participation.
To add data to the WageIndicator database, they use the Cost of Living survey app. They can enter the data even if they don’t have access to the internet, and then submit everything later when they are online. In Cuba, paper forms are used because there is no consistent internet connection.
How does one ensure the WageIndicator Cost of Living data is accurate?
Apart from the WageIndicator data team's own checks on the data when it is received, there are a few quality controls "on the ground." Only data collectors can enter information into the WageIndicator app. Each data collector has a personal ID. They can't access other collectors' data. Also, the regions change every three months. This means that people can't just copy and paste data from the previous quarter. Luis adds: “Supervisors can't enter data themselves, but they can check the data entries. If they think something doesn't make sense, like there are strange peaks or products that are too expensive or too cheap, they ask the data collectors to double-check. The supervisors look for any unusual values based on where the data comes from. Is it a supermarket? Or a market? It makes a big difference.”
Is data collecting a dangerous job in Central America?
“It's not a dangerous job,” says Luis. “Data collectors can travel safely most of the time, including women. They know how to approach people politely in the right way, and to make people feel comfortable.”
What challenges do data collectors face?
In some countries it may be hard to collect prices, because products are not available - for example, there have been situations where there is no cereal, no meat, no personal care products. Some regions are more like “transit” areas, where people are just passing through. So it is hard to collect prices because there is no stable population. And in some countries, collecting data may be seen as a political act, which raises its own problems. “It makes you aware that Latin America is a continent with many different situations, depending on the country. Living in Costa Rica, Panama, or Chile costs a lot of money, for example,” says Luis.
What do data collectors think about their work?
“The data collectors tell the supervisors that what they are doing is amazing. They feel like they are doing something important. They feel important,” says Luis. The data collectors say that they want to know how the data changes over time and from one quarter to the next. “They are really interested in this,” says Luis.
