Office staff salaries in Big Mac terms

Global Wage Comparison

(general office clerks, secretaries, receptionists)

This global wage comparison is based on the sample of 17481 respondents who replied to the questionnaire in the WageIndicator survey during years 2009-2011.

For comparison purposes, two indices are presented:

I. BIGMac-.gif Big Mac Wage expresses a wage converted into number of Big Macs that employees can afford to buy.

II. Wage in $ adjusted by purchasing power parity (PPP) expresses wage in dollars that have the same purchasing power as current U.S. dollar has in the USA. The second index is more complicated than the first one because it takes into account more than 1 commodity.

Tab.: Median gross and net hourly wage in $ adjusted by PPP [1] and Big Mac wage [2].

Country Median hourly wage in $ adjusted by PPP  Big Macs per hour of work
  General office clerks Secretaries (general) Receptionists (general) General office clerks Secretaries (general) Receptionists (general)
  Gross Net Gross Net Gross Net  
 
Belgium 16.1 10.4 14.4 9.6 13.3 9.5 2.7 2.5 2.5
Denmark 18.7 11.4



3.5
 
Finland 15.4 11.3 14.5 10.7

3.2 3.0  
France

12.6 9.8

  2.6  
Germany 16.1 10.6 17.6 11.1 13.5 9.1 2.6 2.7 2.2
Italy 16.2 11.3



2.9
 
Netherlands 16.9 12.0 17.0 12.0 15.8 11.2 3.0 3.0 2.8
Spain 14.2 10.5 11.2 8.2 10.4 7.4 2.3 1.8 1.7
Sweden 16.9 12.4

13.3 10.0 2.4
1.9
United Kingdom 15.1 11.0 14.9 11.3 11.9 8.9 3.1 3.2 2.5
United States 12.5 7.7 12.9 10.0     1.9 2.5  
Czech Republic 9.0 6.9 7.9 6.2 7.6 6.0 1.4 1.2 1.2
Hungary 6.2 4.5 6.0 4.0

0.8 0.8  
Poland 9.5 6.7 6.3 4.7

1.5 1.1  
Argentina 7.7 6.2 6.4 5.1 5.6 4.7 0.8 0.6 0.6
Brazil 4.1 3.3 3.1 2.6 2.5 2.1 0.6 0.5 0.4
Chile 7.6 5.9 4.3 3.2

1.3 0.7  
Colombia 4.9 4.1 3.1 2.5 3.1 2.5 0.6 0.4 0.4
Guatemala 4.0 3.6



 
 
Mexico 6.1 4.8 3.6 3.0 4.0 2.9 1.3 0.8 0.8
Paraguay 6.8 5.3


 

 
Azerbaijan 6.6 5.4              
Belarus 5.9 5.0 3.8 3.2 4.8 4.0  
 
Kazakhstan 5.9 4.9

2.9 2.4  
 
Russian Federation 6.1 5.3 4.7 4.1 6.6 5.6 1.6 1.2 1.7
Ukraine 4.3 3.4 3.5 2.7 4.8 3.9      
China 4.3 3.6 3.4 3.1 4.1 3.1 1.0 0.9 0.9
India 5.3 4.6 6.1 5.1 4.5 4.1 1.1 1.2 1.0
Indonesia 3.0 2.5 3.3 2.8     0.7 0.8  
South Africa 10.2 7.9 10.0 8.2 6.2 5.7 2.2 2.2 1.5

 

Note: Because of different price levels in the countries median hourly net and gross wage is presented in dollars that have the same purchasing power as current U.S. dollar has in the USA.
Statistics are reported for the occupations with at least 20 observations. Moreover "Big Macs per hour of work" are only reported for countries with published Big Mac prices.

Source: WageIndicator 2009-2011; IMF World Economic Outlook Database (September 2011); The Economist (July 2011)


[1]. IMF’s estimates of the PPP exchange rates for the year 2011 were used (http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2011/02/weodata/index.aspx)
[2]. Big Mac prices were collected in July 2011 (http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/07/big-mac-index)

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