Slog 177 hrs to buy an iPod nano

Mumbai, that fabled magnet for wage-earners in the country, makes you work much harder for a little bit of luxury than any other city in the world.

According to a survey of 73 top cities by Swiss banking group UBS, even a comparatively less-expensive gizmo like an iPod nano will need back-breaking work.

Consider this. “An average wage-earner in Zurich and New York can buy an iPod 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,” says the survey.

Sounds tough already? Gobble this. An average Mumbaikar has to work 61 minutes for a bite into a Big Mac, while an employee in Geneva puts in just 17 minutes. It’s easier in the national capital Delhi, at 49 minutes. In fact, only six other cities among the 73 surveyed come off worse, with Nairobi at the bottom at 158 minutes. For a kg of rice, an employee in Mumbai has to work for 37 minutes and his counterpart in London just eight.

Those in Zurich and Geneva have the highest net wages in the world, while workers in Mumbai take home the lowest amount, the study says.

The Mumbaikar also has to grapple with longer working hours per year — 2,196 hours — than all but four of the other cities surveyed. And, this will hurt hard, each of those hours are less valued than any of the other cities — gross hourly pay here is $1.3 compared to $26.1 in New York and $30.30 in Zurich.