한국의 근로자들이 국내 최저임금으로 빅맥버거 하나를 사기 위해서는 42분 일해야 한다는 결과가 나왔다.
시장조사업체 컨버지엑스그룹은 맥도날드의 빅맥버거 가격, 이른바 “빅맥지수”를 이용해 각국의 최저임금을 비교했다.
한국의 현재 최저임금은 4,860원 (약 4.35달러)이며, 이는 42분을 일해야 빅맥 하나를 살 수 있는 수준이다.
가장 적게 일하고 빅맥을 사먹을 수 있는 나라는 최저임금은 16.88 달러(19,000원)을 기준으로 18분을 일하면 된다.
호주 다음으로는 뉴질랜드와 프랑스가 2위에 올랐다.
최저임금이 가장 낮은 나라는 시에라리온으로 136시간 동안 일을 해야 빅맥을 살 수 있는 것으로 나타났다.
(임우정 인턴기자 / 코리아헤럴드)
<관련영문기사>
Koreans must work 42 minutes to buy Big Mac With the current minimum wage, South Koreans need to work 42 minutes to earn a Big Mac burger, a study showed.
The research, conducted by the market research firm ConvergEx Group, compared countries’ minimum wages by using the price of a Big Mac, the signature burger of fast-food giant McDonald’s, as an indicator.
It takes 42 minutes of work at South Korea’s current rate of 4,860 won ($4.35) to afford the burger, according to the data.
Australia has the highest minimum wage, at $16.88, which requires an Australian laborer to work 18 minutes to earn the burger. Workers both in New Zealand and France have to work 22 minutes.
Sierra Leone’s minimum wage was bottom among other countries at 3 cents per hour, requiring 136 hours of work for the burger.
“We wanted to see where the U.S. minimum wage ranked on an international scale, so we took a fairly well-known indicator -- the Big Mac Index -- and compared burger prices to minimum wages in different countries,” a strategist of the research team said.
The “Big Mac Index,” invented by economists in 1986, is a tool for measuring countries’ relative prices after adjusting for the nominal exchange rate between countries’ currencies that differ from country to country.
By Im Woo-jung, Intern reporter
(
iwj@heraldcorp.com)
