Do note please that in my Bottom Line, I did use an explanation from a previous econlife post. My sources and more: As always, my source for the newest Big Mac Index was The Economistwhile the Guardian and FT had the minimum wage data. But the Big Mac Index shows us that foreign exchange rates are not quite that predictable. As a result, we cannot necessarily assume where a tariff will take the relative value of a currency.īut we can look at the Big Mac Index for some clues. To view pricing information for a particular Intel Mac in all available countries and. Taking the next step, they conclude that a stronger dollar would eliminate the pain consumers will feel from higher import prices. “border adjustment” tariff that proponents say would strengthen the dollar.
Those currency changes take us to recent proposals for a U.S. We can also add the currency impact of domestic instability or a sinking commodity price. Others try to make exports more attractive by intentionally undervaluing their currency. Better at making certain items, a country can charge less. What we have then is an undervalued yuan that makes Chinese goods more attractive in world markets.īut a currency’s purchasing power can change. However, converting $5.06, you get 34.93 yuan–more than its 19.6 yuan price. With 34.93 yuan you could get 1.78 Big Macs. A Big Mac will cost you $5.06 in the U.S. and 19.6 yuan in China. The price of a Big Mac can give us insight about the purchasing power of different currencies. In Mexico, it would take more than four hours: Our Bottom Line: Big Mac Prices and Tax Proposals federal minimum wage needs close to 45 minutes of work for a Big Mac. The price of a Big Mac can look entirely different through the eyes of a minimum wage worker. The Dollar Price of a Big Mac in Selected Countries Looking at the 14 countries I selected from the Index, you can see Big Macs are relatively inexpensive in China and Mexico: Big Mac would cost if you traveled around the world.
The Economist’s 2017 Big Mac Index shows us what a $5.06 U.S. Where are we going? To what the Big Mac tells us about purchasing power and tax proposals. price. On the other hand, a Big Mac in Switzerland would require (a whopping) $6.35 in U.S. At the equivalent of $1.46, an Egyptian Big Mac is less than one-third the $5.06 U.S. “The wage increase in 2015 - to be a $1 above the local minimum wage - was applicable to the local wages on July 1, 2015, but was not a policy thereafter,” the fast food chain said in a statement.Based on the January 2017 Big Mac Index, we can get the most burger for our buck in Egypt. As a result, the company said, they would make an average of $10 an hour.īut three years later, Fight for 15 accused McDonald’s of lying to workers and released pay stubs showing that workers in eight different cities were making between 40 and 70 cents above their local minimum. In April 2015, McDonald’s announced that it would implement a wage increase for 90,000 workers at its 1,500 company-owned restaurants in the U.S the chain said that as of 1 July of that year, employees would earn at least $1 more than the local minimum wage. Big Mac Index, Definition of Big Mac Index:Index used to measure the purchasing power between two currencies by evaluating the prices of McDonalds famous Big Mac sandwich in its restaurants. We contacted McDonald’s seeking comment, but the restaurant chain has yet to respond. Web sites like and, which aggregate companies’ salary information, reported that the average salary for a McDonald’s employee is around $9 per hour. Department of Labor, 29 states currently have minimum wages higher than the federal standard of $7.25 an hour. These modest updates were announced at Apples 2017 WWDC conference.
For its part, the Australian government’s Fair Work Ombudsman states that the minimum wage there is $18.29 Australian, equivalent to $13.64 American dollars.Īccording to the U.S. The already impressive 27-inch 5K iMac gets some welcome spec upgrades for 2017, but rival Windows machines have closed the gap.
However, a French government states on its web site that the country’s minimum wage is 9.88 Euro, equivalent to $11.71 U.S. Important Note : At McDonald's, we take great care to serve quality, great-tasting menu items to our customers each and every time they visit our restaurants. The group also based its findings on a Wikipedia page listing minimum wages in 193 countries. Fight for 15, which has campaigned for the company to both institute a minimum wage of $15 per hour across the board and allow workers to unionize, also noted that it based its Big Mac prices on the “Big Mac index,” a currency-comparison guide published by The Economist compiling average prices for the burger at McDonald’s locations in various countries to “make exchange-rate theory more digestible” for readers.