A CHIP (Credit Hour In Pool) is a proposed unit for measuring value. It represents the value produced by one continuously applied hour of adult human work under standardized conditions: unskilled labor, balanced supply and demand, minimal capital equipment, and a worker of average functioning ability. It is designed to be independent of the volatility of traditional national currencies.

The base CHIP value was estimated at $2.53 per hour in 2019 US dollars, using econometric analysis of panel data from 89 countries. Adjusted for inflation, today's estimated value is approximately $---. See the CHIP Value page for an interactive historical chart.

The original study uses a Cobb-Douglas production function estimated from international data on GDP, capital stock, employment, wages, and hours worked. This yields the marginal product of labor for each country. A "distortion factor" measures how far actual wages deviate from this theoretical value. The CHIP value is then a GDP-weighted global average of the theoretical unskilled wage, adjusted for these distortions.

Minimum wages are set by political processes and vary enormously between countries. They don't reflect the true economic value of labor in a balanced market. The CHIP methodology aims to estimate what unskilled labor would be worth in a frictionless global market without borders, tariffs, or political distortions.

MyCHIPs is a proposed digital currency based on the CHIP unit of value. Unlike traditional cryptocurrencies, MyCHIPs are backed by the value of human labor and can be implemented without a central authority. Read more in The MyCHIPs Papers.

All research code, data pipelines, original studies, and supporting documents are open source and available at github.com/gotchoices/chip. This includes the original R-based study, a Python reproduction, and a modular workbench for ongoing research.

We welcome researchers interested in contributing to CHIP valuation methodology. Whether you want to propose a new estimation approach, test alternative models, or improve the existing pipeline, we'd like to hear from you. Contact us to discuss collaboration. Funding may be available for bona fide research participants.

The base econometric estimate is recalculated periodically as new international data becomes available (typically lagging 1–2 years). The daily value shown on this site is the base estimate adjusted for US CPI inflation, updated from Bureau of Labor Statistics data.