Padang Panjang, a small city in West Sumatra, upends the usual link between schooling and pay: workers with only elementary school netted Rp3.65 million a month in 2024, the highest among the province’s informal sector, beating high school graduates.
Key findings
- Highest earner: Informally employed workers in Padang Panjang with only SD (elementary) education took home Rp3.65 million per month.
- Lowest earner: In the remote Mentawai Islands, those who never attended school or didn't finish primary earned just Rp817,000 monthly.
- Top-heavy city: Padang Panjang filled all three top spots, with its overall informal worker average at Rp3.05 million and SMA-to-atas workers at Rp2.98 million.
- Education inversion: In Padang Panjang, workers with only elementary schooling out-earned their high school counterparts—a pattern not seen elsewhere in the province.
- Province average: Across West Sumatra, the typical informal worker netted Rp1.77 million per month, with Mentawai and Pesisir Selatan trailing.
Why elementary school pays more in Padang Panjang
The pattern is striking because in most other districts of West Sumatra, higher education correlates with higher informal earnings. But in Padang Panjang, the SD-educated cohort topped the city’s own average (Rp3.05 million) and edged out the SMA-to-atas group (Rp2.98 million). No other area saw such an inversion.
Padang Panjang’s economy revolves around trade, local food, and transport services—sectors where a secondary-school diploma adds less value than hands-on experience and networks. The city’s compact size and commercial bustle may allow elementary-educated street vendors or shopkeepers to build loyal customers, while similarly educated workers in remote Mentawai face rock-bottom prices and scarce buyers.
The BPS data, drawn from the August 2024 Sakernas survey, covers 100 data points across 19 regencies and cities. It serves as a reminder that in the informal economy, location often trumps education. For West Sumatra, narrowing the gap between Padang Panjang’s thriving micro-traders and Mentawai’s subsistence earners may hinge less on diplomas and more on market access and infrastructure.
Source: Indonesian Central Statistics Agency (BPS) — Web API · Thursday, 2 July 2026, 21:05
