A Japanese restaurant or retailer’s store employee can buy about 2.2 McDonald’s hamburgers and Big Macs if they work for an hour.
There were fewer than the U.S. and Britain with more than 2.5 but fewer than South Korea and Singapore with less than two.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun calculated the number of Big Macs that can be bought by one-hour work per country by combining the hourly wages of 22 global restaurant and retail chains, including McDonald’s, and the local prices of Big Macs announced by the British weekly magazine Economist.
According to the Big Mac price as of July last year, Japan is $3.2, nearly 50% cheaper than the US and UK, which are in the $5 range.
However, the hourly wage of Japanese employees is also relatively low, so the number of Big Macs that can be bought is also small.
The number of Big Macs that can be bought for 1,47 yen, the median hourly wage for Japanese employees, was 2.18, which was lower than Australia, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the United States, and Canada.
It was also low compared to the average of 2.5 in five euro area countries, including Germany and France.
On the other hand, the number was higher than 1.79 in Korea and 1.80 in Singapore.
Japan has seen a 0.2 decrease in the number of big macs available for purchase over the past five years, the second largest drop after France among 11 countries that can be compared.
Converting hourly wages in dollar terms, Japan reversed other Asian countries, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, as the yen weakened and slow wage increases reduced it from $8.6 in 2019 to $7.0 in 2024.
Japan’s low wage level was highlighted in an analysis based on the Big Mac, known as an international price indicator, Nikkei said. “The price of goods and services has begun to rise due to the COVID-19 crisis and the Ukraine crisis, but the wage increase is not keeping up with it.”
SALLY LEE
US ASIA JOURNAL
