SOURCE: @ilo (International Labour Organization)
The statement that nearly 300 million workers worldwide live in extreme poverty, earning under $3 a day, is accurate according to the latest data from the International Labour Organization (ILO). This highlights the persistent global challenge of job quality and income inequality despite stable overall employment levels.
Key Statistics on Extreme Working Poverty
Recent reports from the ILO, including the Employment and Social Trends 2026, emphasize that progress toward decent work has stalled, with the burden falling disproportionately on low-income countries.
- Number of Workers Affected: Around 284 million workers still live in extreme poverty, earning less than $3 a day (based on 2021 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) rates, the new international poverty line set by the World Bank in June 2025).
- Persistent Challenge: This figure has not seen substantial improvement in recent years, with progress slowing significantly since 2015.
- Informal Employment: A large number of workers, over 2 billion people, remain in informal employment, which typically means limited access to social protection, rights, and job security, further contributing to poverty.
- Regional Disparities: Working poverty rates remain highest in vulnerable regions. For example, in 2024, nearly 3 in 10 workers in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) lived in extreme poverty.
- Broader Poverty Picture: When considering the general population (not just workers), an estimated 808 million people, or about one in ten globally, were living in extreme poverty (less than $3 per day) in 2025, with more than three-quarters living in Sub-Saharan Africa or fragile and conflict-affected states.
These figures indicate that simply having a job is not a guaranteed escape from poverty, and significant investment in job quality and social protection is needed to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating poverty by 2030
