felipec

felipec t1_j75xd9x wrote

> what about every other country?

I don't know about other countries, but it's not like every country is inventing statistics from scratch. International organizations do create guidelines for how income surveys should be conducted precisely because it's very easy to miss something otherwise.

Here's a handbook from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) with 208 pages explaining how income statistics should be gathered and why: Canberra Group Handbook on Household Income Statistics, 2nd edition.

Not all countries follow every one of the recommendations, but it's not like no one has thought of informal employment ever. Everyone in the field already knows tax data cannot be relied for income statistics.

1