Mumbai is one of the cheapest cities but also paying the lowest hourly wages in the world according to UBS study comparing purchasing power of 73 cities of the world!!!

The study ,‘Prices and Earning’ conducted by the Swiss Bank UBS found Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Delhi and Mumbai as the least expensive cities on a standardized basket of 122 goods and services.The most expensive were ,Oslo,Zurich,Copenhagen,Geneva,Tokyo and New York.These cities paid the higest gross salaries too especially Zurich and Geneva in terms of net wages.They were also a very employee friendly country with comparatively low taxation.The lowest salary in Europe were paid in Bulgaria and Romania even though it had joined the EU in 2007.

The study uses a specific highly uniform product that are available everywhere with the same quality unlike an abstract basket of goods and services. It studies how long an employee works to be able to afford the product in each city.For the first time for example one of the product used was an iPod Nano , an average wage earner in Zurich and New York could buy one from an Apple outlet after a nine hour work only.In Manila, 14 nine hrs days were required and in Mumbai 20 nine hrs days to get the same iPod!!!!

Other intresting discoveries were,on average employees work 1,092 hours per year in 73 surveyed countries.
However in Asia and Middle East they spent 2,119 and 2,063 hr per year.The world’s most worked city was Cairo at 2,373 hrs per year!!!!Followed by Seoul at 2,312 hrs per year!!The least working cities were Lyon and Paris at 1,582 and 1,594 hrs per year.Come to think of it there are more reasons now to move to the Swiss Alps, anyone care to join !