http://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/icelanders-work-less-more-mexicans-opposite
Icelanders Work Less, For More; Mexicans The Opposite
Tyler Durden's Photo
by Tyler Durden
Wednesday, Nov 22, 2023 - 04:15 AM
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is generally regarded as a collection of highly developed, high income countries. However with 38 member states from across the globe, economic prosperity can still vary widely between these nations.
To illustrate this, Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao and Truman Du from Genuine Impact charts the average weekly work hours and salaries across the OECD in 2022.
For wages, the OECD divided a countryโs total wage bill by the average number of employees, accounting for inflation by using USD constant prices with a 2016 base year. Importantly, they also adjust using purchasing power parity (PPP) for private consumption of the same year.
Ranked: OECD Countries By Working Hours & Average Pay
Hereโs a list of 35 OECD countries ranked by their weekly wage in 2022.
Iceland has the highest weekly wage at $1,528 in the OECD block much higher than all four of its Nordic neighbors. This results in Icelandic workers, on average, earning nearly $55/hour.
Rank Country Avg. Weekly Wage (USD) Avg. Weekly Work (Hours) Avg. Hourly Rate (USD)
1 ๐ฎ๐ธ Iceland $1,528.33 27.87 $54.84
2 ๐ฑ๐บ Luxembourg $1,505.96 28.33 $53.15
3 ๐บ๐ธ United States $1,489.68 34.83 $42.78
4 ๐จ๐ญ Switzerland $1,403.71 29.40 $47.75
5 ๐ง๐ช Belgium $1,247.07 29.35 $42.50
6 ๐ฉ๐ฐ Denmark $1,233.20 26.38 $46.75
7 ๐ฆ๐น Austria $1,226.95 27.76 $44.19
8 ๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands $1,215.87 27.44 $44.31
9 ๐ฆ๐บ Australia $1,142.46 32.83 $34.80
10 ๐จ๐ฆ Canada $1,135.58 32.42 $35.02
11 ๐ฉ๐ช Germany $1,133.47 25.79 $43.96
12 ๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom $1,038.17 29.46 $35.24
13 ๐ณ๐ด Norway $1,033.77 27.40 $37.73
14 ๐ซ๐ท France $1,014.68 29.07 $34.91
15 ๐ฎ๐ช Ireland $1,004.67 31.87 $31.52
16 ๐ซ๐ฎ Finland $996.84 28.81 $34.60
17 ๐ณ๐ฟ New Zealand $975.43 33.62 $29.02
18 ๐ธ๐ช Sweden $969.36 27.70 $34.99
19 ๐ฐ๐ท South Korea $940.81 36.56 $25.73
20 ๐ธ๐ฎ Slovenia $907.76 31.13 $29.16
21 ๐ฎ๐น Italy $863.33 32.59 $26.49
22 ๐ฎ๐ฑ Israel $849.15 36.38 $23.34
23 ๐ฑ๐น Lithuania $843.74 31.23 $27.01
24 ๐ช๐ธ Spain $824.22 31.61 $26.08
25 ๐ฏ๐ต Japan $798.25 30.90 $25.83
26 ๐ต๐ฑ Poland $709.55 34.90 $20.33
27 ๐ช๐ช Estonia $667.40 34.05 $19.60
28 ๐ฑ๐ป Latvia $656.46 29.87 $21.98
29 ๐จ๐ฟ Czech Republic $643.76 33.73 $19.08
30 ๐จ๐ฑ Chile $635.42 37.75 $16.83
31 ๐ต๐น Portugal $613.88 31.44 $19.52
32 ๐ญ๐บ Hungary $547.59 32.68 $16.75
33 ๐ธ๐ฐ Slovak Republic $505.05 31.19 $16.19
34 ๐ฌ๐ท Greece $499.60 36.27 $13.77
35 ๐ฒ๐ฝ Mexico $320.87 42.81 $7.49
Note: 2022 data for OECD members Colombia, Costa Rica, and Tรผrkiye is missing from the source and has not been included.
Luxembourg, ranked second place, is the only other country with an average weekly wage that comes in above $1,500.
The U.S. ($1,490), Switzerland ($1,404), and Belgium ($1,247) round out the top five countries with the highest weekly pay in the OECD.
On the other hand, Mexican workers make around $321 a week, the lowest in this dataset.
Hourly Wages & Cost of Living
Despite the wage data using PPP-adjusted metrics, it still doesnโt fully account for discrepancies in local prices, which are influenced by complex factors like tariffs and fuel costs for imported goods, the impact of monopolies and cartels, the price of non-traded goods (energy, housing costs) and government taxes.
And while the difference in salaries seem massive, paying workers enough to meet their costs of living also plays a factor. Countries with higher weekly wages also correlate with a much higher cost of living and vice versa.
Switzerland, Denmark, and Iceland for example are in the top 10 countries with the highest cost of living compared to Mexico, which is far more affordable.
So, while it seems that an average Icelandic worker makes almost 7x what an average Mexican worker makes, the reality of how much of that wage is spent in supporting an average lifestyle in both countries is less direct.
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