Seoul Ranks World’s 11th Most Expensive City

The most expensive were Zurich, Geneva and New York City, according to the prices for a standardised basket of 122 goods and services. Manama workers earn the highest average net wages in the Middle East. In Nairobi, Jakarta and Kiev, the lowest-ranked cities, workers receive only around 5% of average gross earnings in Zurich.

For workers looking for a better work-life balance, Paris is probably your best bet with staff in the capital working around 1,600 hours annually on average, whilst benefiting from some 29 days of paid vacation.

London is the fifth most expensive city in the world to live in but wage levels have failed to keep up compared to other major centres, a report by Swiss Bank UBS has found.

Bill O’Neill, head of the United Kingdom investment office at UBS Wealth Management, indicated the study showed the cost of living in the capital was relatively high compared to earnings.

When it comes to purchasing power – the goods and services a family of three can afford on one month’s salary – Tel Aviv is about middle of the list – lower than Dubai, Johannesburg and Copenhagen but higher than Seoul, Athens and Doha.

Including rents, New York City is most expensive with the benchmark index at 100.

For the iPhone 6 16GB, workers in cities such as Zurich and New York City require on average less than three days on the job to be able to grab one. The priciest haircuts are in Oslo, Parisians work the shortest hours, and a Big Mac costs three hours of work in Nairobi but just nine minutes of toil in Hong Kong.

While Swiss wages are the highest in the world, this matches the pricey cost of living in the country. “Eurozone cities plunged”, the report said, adding that the crisis in Ukraine had pushed Kiev to the bottom of the price and wage charts. Asia remains the continent with the largest variations in prices and wages among cities, while North America is still the most uniform.