London is world’s fifth most expensive city
naky
www.diecastingpartsupplier.com
2015-09-25 10:32:22
London is the fifth most expensive city in the world in which to live and work, but its workers are not among the top 10 average earners globally.
The findings, from UBS, the Swiss bank, show that the widely held belief among Londoners that the city is painfully pricey to live in has some basis in reality.
“This suggests London isn’t a highly priced labour market in terms of the purchasing power of goods [and] labour remains quite competitive from a business perspective,” said Bill O’Neill, head of the UK investment office at UBS Wealth Management.
Excluding rent, London is the sixth most expensive city in the world, and workers’ gross earnings are, on average, the 13th highest.
UBS compared prices, wages and earners’ purchasing power in 71 cities worldwide in nominal US$ terms. It found that, based on the prices for a standardised basket of 122 goods and services, Zurich, Geneva and New York City were the most expensive cities in the world. The cost of living was lowest in eastern Europe, with Kiev the cheapest city in which to live and work.
Workers in Zurich, Geneva, and Luxembourg earn the highest gross wages. In Nairobi, Jakarta and Kiev, workers receive only about a 20th of average gross earnings in Zurich. Salaries went furthest in Luxembourg, Zurich and Geneva, whereas those in Nairobi and Jakarta had the lowest purchasing power.
But the affordability of a Big Mac in Hong Kong came at a price. People in Hong Kong work the longest hours, four more a day than workers in Paris, who spend the fewest hours at work.
On average people worked over 2,000 hours a year in 19 major cities, most of them in Asia and the Middle East.
The shortest work schedule and highest number of days of paid vacation are enjoyed by workers in western Europe.
The UBS study of wages and prices has been running since 1971. The last one, in 2012, found that London was the 10th priciest city in the world, and wages were the 19th highest.