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The price of a Big Mac is often used as a point of cross-border price comparison. A Nikkei analysis used the data to compare workers' purchasing power.

Big Mac exposes Japan's weak hourly-wage purchasing power

Lower price of hamburgers does not necessarily mean inexpensive for workers

TOKYO -- Wages in Japan are low internationally, according to a Nikkei analysis using the price of a McDonald's Big Mac hamburger, the popular fast-food item available worldwide, which is often used as an international price index.

The analysis found that workers in Japan can buy 2.18 Big Mac hamburgers for their one hour of work at a restaurant or retail shop, compared to 3.95 in Australia and 2.56 in Hong Kong. The number in Japan also means a decrease of 0.2 hamburgers from five years ago as wages have risen slower than prices.

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