Delhiites Need to Work 360 Hours on Average to Buy the iPhone 6: Report

One needs to work over 360 hours to earn enough to buy an iPhone 6 in the national capital, but the same requires just 20 hours of work in Zurich, a new purchasing power study shows.

According to UBS' Prices and Earnings 2015 report, which compares the purchasing power in 71 cities across the globe, people in Delhi need to work for 360.3 hours to afford an iPhone 6 - the third highest in the world. Another Indian city Mumbai comes fifth with 349.4 hours. Globally, the working time required to buy an iPhone 6 (Review | Pictures)16GB is the most in Keiv with 627.2 hours, followed by Jakarta/ Nairobi, sharing the second place with 468 hours. Cairo is fourth at 353.4 hours.

In contrast, workers in cities such as Zurich and New York City require on average less than three days on the job to be able to afford one.

Similarly, to be able to buy a Big Mac, workers in Hong Kong only have to work on average nine minutes, while in Mumbai one has to work for 40 minutes and in case of Delhi it is 50 minutes.

In sharp contrast, workers in Nairobi have to work almost three hours to buy a Big Mac.

The report considered staple consumer goods like McDonald's Big Mac and Apple iPhone, as these products are of the same quality and nature worldwide, making their prices and affordability comparable, UBS said.

According to the Swiss banking major, wage levels indicate earnings worldwide. Workers in cities with high relative gross salaries (Zurich, Geneva and Luxembourg) receive pay that is on average 19 times more than those in Nairobi, Jakarta, and Kiev.

Meanwhile, net wages are a good indication of expendable income: A worker in Zurich will have almost 23 times the amount of money to spend than a similar worker in Kiev.

As per the report, if one takes net hourly pay as the benchmark, two Indian cities - New Delhi and Mumbai - were among the bottom ten exhibiting the lowest purchasing power.

However, Indians seem to be partially compensating for low purchasing power through longer working hours. In New Delhi, workers slog for 2,214 hours per year and have only 26 days of holiday annually, while in Mumbai it was 2,277 hours per year and 21 days leave annually.

Meanwhile, on average, workers worldwide spend over 40 hours per week at their workplace, and receive over 4.5 weeks of paid vacation.

Hong Kong tops the list in terms of working hours as the average working hours in that city is over 50 per week, with only 17 days of holiday annually, while in Paris, people work only around 35 hours per week (in line with new government regulations) and have 29 days of paid vacation, the report said.