What is a balanced and evidence-based approach?

Labour force surveys or establishment surveys?

In many countries, a labour force survey will broadly meet these requirements. In some cases, in cooperation with national statistical offices, the labour force survey can be modified to include questions on wages or to oversample a specific population, like domestic or migrant workers, as was done recently for example in Namibia.

Admittedly, there are criticisms of household surveys, like labour force surveys, since they are prone to measurement error, particularly with regards to self-reporting of income, wages and hours. Other surveys, like establishment surveys, can complement analyses undertaken using the labour force survey.

However, it is important to note the groups that are often excluded from establishment surveys – workers in the informal economy, the self-employed and often small or medium-sized enterprises. Excluding these groups from surveys also excludes them from subsequent data analyses that are used to set and adjust the minimum wage.