Sydney 14 hours, Zurich and New York: nine hours of work for an iPod nano

When it comes to global purchasing power, the Big Mac index has been famous. It is used to compare prises of a Big Mac in countries,  suggesting a local price level. Now UBS bank published a table showing  how long someone has to work to earn enough to be able to buy an iPod Nano.  An average wage-earner in Zurich and New York can buy a nano from an Apple store after nine hours of work. At the other end of the spectrum, workers in Mumbai, need to work 20 nine-hour days – roughly the equivalent of one month's salary – to purchase an iPod nano. The IPod Nano is well in reach of most Australians as they only need to work 14 hours to buy one.

The study also determined that employees have to work a global average of 37 minutes to earn enough to pay for a Big Mac, 22 minutes for a kilo of rice and 25 minutes for a kilo of bread. For the first time, a non-food product was used in the study to compare working hours.

Long working hours in the Middle East and Asia – shortest in France
People work an average of 1,902 hours per year in the surveyed cities but they work much longer in Asian and Middle Eastern cities, averaging 2,119 and 2,063 hours per year respectively. Overall, the most hours are worked in Cairo (2,373 hours per year), followed by Seoul (2,312 hours). People in Lyon and Paris, by contrast, spend the least amount of time at work according to the global comparison: 1,582 and 1,594 hours per year respectively.

Look for more interesting comparissons in regards to international students at: Bert's blog