Policy Briefs
Trends in Income and Wage Inequality in Egypt (1988-2023)
No.
PB141
Publisher
ERF
Date
December, 2024
In a nutshell
- The inflationary pressures that Egypt witnessed since the currency devaluation in late 2016 negatively impacted real wage and income levels and exacerbated inequality.
- Median real hourly wages dropped sharply in 1998 to EGP 16.4 following the economic reform program and dropped again in 2018 and 2023 to EGP 19.1 and EGP 17.3, respectively, after a brief recovery in 2006 and 2012.
- Egypt has high wage inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, with a consistently increasing trend from 38.3 in 1988 to 43.1 in 2023.
- The median real monthly income per capita decreased between 2012 and 2018 and recovered slightly in 2023.
- The Gini coefficient of income inequality is high but relatively stable, decreasing slightly from 50.4 percent in 2012 to 49.8 percent in 2018 and increasing again to 50.1 percent in 2023.
- Income is not diversified in Egypt, as more than half of households years rely on only one income source in all years regardless of their characteristics.
- Wages are received by the largest portion of households in Egypt, yet this portion is declining over time (from 72 percent in 2012 to 60 percent in 2023).
- Wages are consistently the major driver behind income inequality, and their contribution increased between 2012 and 2023 (from 42.7 percent to 48.9 percent).
- By 2023, informal private sector wages became the most prevalent source of income among households (29 percent) and an important share of total household income (23 percent), followed by public sector wages (18 and 17 percent, respectively), then by formal private sector wages (13 and 12 percent, respectively).
Authors
Mona El-Sayed
Assistant Lecturer, Economics Department, Faculty of Economics...
Research Fellows
May Gadallah
Associate Professor, Departments of Statistics, Cairo University
Speakers
Mariam Hagag
Statistician, Economic Research Forum