Work hours to buy…

Work hours to buy Big Mac, ranked by country

For each country below, this is how many hours someone earning the local median wage must work to afford Big Mac. Fewer hours means it is more affordable relative to local pay. Wage figures are real, sourced from the ILO and OECD; the price is the local list price where we have one, otherwise the US price as a reference (both in US dollars).

It is cheapest to earn in Switzerland (about 0.1 hours) and most demanding in Burundi (about 45 hours) across 164 countries with sourced wage data.

#	Country	Work hours
1	Switzerland	0.1
2	Luxembourg	0.1
3	Belgium	0.2
4	Denmark	0.2
5	Iceland	0.2
6	Norway	0.2
7	Netherlands	0.2
8	United Arab Emirates *	0.2
9	Austria	0.2
10	Finland	0.2
11	United States of America	0.2
12	Ireland	0.2
13	United Kingdom	0.3
14	Germany	0.3
15	Sweden	0.3
16	Canada	0.3
17	New Zealand	0.3
18	Singapore	0.3
19	Australia	0.3
20	Qatar *	0.3
21	Israel	0.3
22	Slovenia	0.3
23	Spain	0.4
24	Iran *	0.4
25	Hong Kong	0.4
26	Japan	0.4
27	Estonia	0.4
28	France	0.4
29	Czechia	0.4
30	Cyprus	0.4
31	Croatia	0.5
32	New Caledonia	0.5
33	Lithuania	0.5
34	Latvia	0.5
35	Saudi Arabia *	0.5
36	Kuwait *	0.6
37	South Korea	0.6
38	Italy	0.6
39	Greenland *	0.6
40	Puerto Rico	0.6
41	The Bahamas	0.6
42	Poland	0.7
43	Brunei *	0.7
44	Romania	0.7
45	Slovakia	0.8
46	Portugal	0.8
47	Hungary	0.9
48	Oman *	0.9
49	Republic of Serbia	1.0
50	Bulgaria	1.0
51	Mauritania	1.0
52	Greece	1.0
53	Uruguay	1.0
54	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1.0
55	Palestine	1.1
56	Russia *	1.1
57	Costa Rica	1.2
58	Malaysia *	1.2
59	Montenegro *	1.2
60	Trinidad and Tobago	1.3
61	Chile	1.4
62	Jamaica *	1.5
63	Panama *	1.5
64	Turkey	1.6
65	Argentina	1.7
66	China *	1.8
67	North Macedonia *	1.8
68	Lebanon	1.9
69	Albania *	1.9
70	Belize	2.0
71	Belarus *	2.0
72	Mexico	2.1
73	Ecuador	2.1
74	Djibouti	2.2
75	Brazil	2.3
76	Fiji	2.3
77	Peru	2.4
78	Kosovo *	2.4
79	Paraguay	2.4
80	Moldova	2.4
81	Mongolia	2.6
82	Colombia	2.6
83	Dominican Republic	2.6
84	Libya *	2.6
85	Uzbekistan *	2.6
86	Bolivia	2.7
87	El Salvador	2.8
88	Azerbaijan *	2.8
89	Kazakhstan *	2.8
90	Jordan	2.9
91	Thailand	2.9
92	Guyana	3.0
93	Vanuatu *	3.1
94	Ukraine *	3.1
95	Guatemala	3.1
96	Morocco *	3.2
97	Iraq *	3.3
98	Georgia	3.3
99	Honduras	3.4
100	Gabon *	3.5
101	Suriname	3.5
102	Nicaragua *	3.7
103	Philippines	3.9
104	Algeria *	3.9
105	South Africa	4.3
106	East Timor	4.3
107	Equatorial Guinea *	4.9
108	Cambodia	4.9
109	Haiti *	5.0
110	Bhutan	5.3
111	Kyrgyzstan *	5.4
112	Tunisia	5.5
113	Namibia	5.5
114	Guinea	5.8
115	Solomon Islands *	5.8
116	Armenia	5.9
117	Tajikistan *	5.9
118	eSwatini	6.1
119	Ivory Coast	6.3
120	Botswana	6.5
121	Papua New Guinea *	6.7
122	Nepal	6.9
123	Zimbabwe *	7.2
124	Indonesia	7.2
125	Sudan	7.4
126	Cameroon *	7.6
127	Laos	7.6
128	Ghana	7.8
129	Chad	8.3
130	Eritrea *	8.4
131	Senegal	8.6
132	Afghanistan	8.7
133	Mali	8.9
134	India	8.9
135	Sri Lanka	9.0
136	Myanmar	9.2
137	Liberia	9.6
138	Syria *	10
139	Mozambique	10
140	Benin	10
141	Guinea-Bissau	10
142	Bangladesh	11
143	Zambia	11
144	Egypt	11
145	Democratic Republic of the Congo	11
146	United Republic of Tanzania	12
147	Togo	12
148	Niger	13
149	Pakistan	13
150	Republic of the Congo *	13
151	Malawi *	13
152	Burkina Faso	13
153	Ethiopia	14
154	Sierra Leone *	15
155	Lesotho	16
156	Gambia	16
157	Central African Republic *	17
158	Angola	17
159	Uganda	18
160	Rwanda	19
161	Kenya	22
162	Madagascar	22
163	Nigeria	27
164	Burundi	45

Work hours = price ÷ the country’s median wage (hourly). The price is the local list price where we have one, otherwise the US price as a reference (both in USD) — it won’t match every local retailer or tax, so treat the numbers as an illustration and check the price where you live.

* Wage is a PIP-calibrated estimate rather than a directly sourced figure.