UBS added that workers in Zurich, Geneva and Luxembourg earn the highest gross wages.
When rent is included, the USA city jumps to first place as a two-bedroom unfurnished apartment averages $4,320 a month compared with $2,390 in Zurich.
If you thought living in Tel Aviv was expensive, your worst fears have now been confirmed by a new report from UBS, a worldwide bank based in Switzerland.
The salaries go farthest in Luxembourg, Zurich and Geneva, where the net hourly wage buys the most goods and services from the standardised basket.
Nairobi, Jakarta and Kiev are the lowest-ranked cities for earnings, where workers receive only around five per cent of those in Zurich, the best city in the world.
The residents of Zurich need to work about 80 hours for a day of holiday, just one hour above the Bucharest level, but 27 hours more than Moscow employees.
And according to UBS’ Prices and Earnings index 2015, Kenyan capital Nairobi and Indonesia’s capital Jakarta have the lowest purchasing power; workers in these cities can afford just one-tenth of what their equivalents in Luxembourg can buy.
Workers in Hong Kong work 1,000 more hours than those in Paris, a difference of around four hours per workday.
While the wage level is the fourth-highest among Asian cities, next to Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul, home rental prices in Taipei are comparatively higher than Tokyo and Seoul, according to the report. Services tend to be correlated to local wages, with the cost of the basket covering services such as haircuts, dry cleaning and internet fees. And it is only 13th when it comes to earning potential. Asia remains the continent with the largest variations in prices and wages among cities, while North America is still the most uniform.
