Holiday pay, repayments from the tax office or family allowances on the partner's account can distort the picture: not everyone knows how much money is available to his or her own household each month.
It is even more difficult to assess where one stands in the income distribution. Because statisticians have a complex method for measuring living standards. In addition to income from gainful employment and capital as well as pensions and social cash benefits (such as unemployment, sickness and childcare benefits) net of taxes and social contributions, the housing situation of the household is also taken into account.
Specifically, the fictitious rental value (excluding operating costs and less any credit instalments to finance the home) is included in the income of persons who own the home. In this way, a significant asset that increases the consumption potential compared to a tenant household can be transferred to the calculation of income.
In order to make households of different sizes and age structures comparable, the total income of a household is also converted into a needs-adjusted per capita income (new OECD equivalence scale). Accordingly, a couple without children reaches a comparable standard of living with 1.5 times the income of a single household.
With the new "Standard" online calculator in cooperation with WIFO, users can inform themselves about their position in the Austrian income distribution. For the first time, users can also compare groups according to socio-demographic characteristics such as education, origin, age or family composition.
Click here for the online calculator.
