Working Conditions

The fast food test

In the same spirit as the Big Mac Index, IHLO estimated, based on the average wage (Hong Kong and Macau) and the minimum wage (PRC) how long it would take various types of low paid workers to earn enough money for a locally popular fast food meal – MacDonald’s in China and Hong Kong and KFC in Macau.

In Beijing, we found that it would take a worker earning the  minimum wage around five hours to earn enough for a Big N’tasty meal while in Hong Kong a shop floor worker at MacDonald’s would need to work an hour and a bit to eat a Big N’Tasty meal. Over in Macau, a MacDonald’s worker would have to work almost one and a half hours to earn enough to buy the slightly more expensive KFC set

According to the Big Mac Index however the fasted earned Big Macs are in Tokyo (Japan) and Los Angeles (USA) at ten and 11 minutes respectively. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index]

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People’s Republic of China: How long it take a worker to earn enough money for a locally popular MacDonald’s Big N’tasty [23 RMB]?

Hong Kong: How long it take a worker to earn enough money for a locally popular MacDonald’s Big N’tasty [26.5HKD]?
在香港,一名上班族/清潔/肯德基工人/酒吧侍應需工作多少小時才能賺取足夠的錢買一份麥當勞/一碗雞肉飯等

[based on 2007/early2008 HKCTU survey of average wages]

Macau SAR: How long it take a worker to earn enough money for a locally popular KFC combo set [Macau patacas 29.5]

[Based on interviews and local sources]

Exchange rates (as of Decent Work Day): 10 Macau Patacas = 0.918 Euro / 10HKD = 0.945 Euro

IHLO

October 2008