You’ve all heard of the Big Mac Index which measures the number of hours a worker needs to work to be able to buy a Big Mac burger in different countries — the idea is to eliminate the impact of differing rates of inflation in various countries. It turns out, going by UBS’ latest ‘Price and Earnings’ study, that Copenhagen, Zurich and Geneva top the list in terms of salaries/wages. Though they have among the highest prices, they remain among the top countries when it comes to the Big Mac Index.
So, a worker in Zurich needs to work 15 minutes to buy a Big Mac (17 minutes in Copenhagen). For the first time, UBS has introduced an iPod nano index as well — Zurich tops the list with workers needing to work just 9 hours to buy the gadget. The surprise entrant here is Sydney — it is 20th when it comes to wages but is ranked 2nd for both the Big Mac and the iPod in terms of the least amount of time required to buy them.
Mumbai and Delhi are ranked 70th and 73rd when it comes to wages, so despite having very low prices (they’re 72nd and 73rd when it comes to prices), people here have to work the most to buy either of these two items. It requires 61 hours in Mumbai to earn enough to buy a burger and 49 hours in Delhi. As for an iPod, it takes 122 hours in Delhi and 177 hours in Mumbai — that’s over two three weeks in Delhi, assuming a nine-hour working day and a five-day week, and almost a month in Mumbai.
