Turns out our wages don’t go far at all (I’m sure you won’t be surprised). We are not even on the list!
They used mean wage instead of median. Every calculation from that point on is meaningless.
The Aus stats are from 2021, too (most of the other countries are 2024). I can’t see how PPP was worked out, or if inflation comes into it. Also, '21 is in the midst of covid.
My anecdotal feeling is that our wages go a long way here. Food is cheap and high quality, essential medical care is pretty much free, fuel is cheap, electricity is cheap (in most states), taxes are low.
Are you sure we’re not on the list because they didn’t check? Because it looks like they just checked EU and NA? Not South America, not Asia, not us either?
I was pretty surprised too because Australia is usually always included in all their rankings.
Do we know if this includes benefits like healthcare, and public transport that reduce the cost of living?
Something makes me doubt it’s worse to live in Australia vs the United states.
Yes, I was pretty surprised too because Australia is usually always included in all their rankings. They say:
This graphic ranks countries by average monthly earnings adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), using data from the International Labor Organization. Rather than comparing salaries on paper, the ranking measures how much goods and services workers can actually afford after accounting for local prices.
The results show that high nominal wages do not always translate into stronger purchasing power. In some countries, expensive housing and consumer costs significantly reduce how far incomes go, while others combine relatively high wages with lower living costs.
So it probably doesn’t account for the fact Americans must spend a large chunk of their spending money on health insurance which we don’t have to; not to mention the enormous cost should they become sick or injured
The underlying data source is very interesting. They have easily accessible stats on a lot of things! https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/snapshots/earnings/
Australia (and other countries not in the slop graph) are in this source for the post’s linked article.
Looks like europe plus usa and canada.
I’m not sure we’re not on the list because we’re lower? It could be that we just weren’t included in the data so aren’t ranked?
As I respond to others, I was pretty surprised too because Australia is usually always included in all their rankings.
