Surprise! NYC is world’s most expensive city

UBS: New York blends high prices and relatively low wages

Future Midtown Skyline
A rendering of the future Midtown skyline (credit: CityRealty)

It’s not just the rent. The price of everything in New York is damn high.

Our town is the most expensive on Earth, combining high prices for both rent and goods and services with relatively low after-tax wages, according to a study by Swiss megabank UBS.

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The city’s closest competitors, Zurich and Geneva, have more expensive stuff, but New York takes the title with its high rents and comparatively miserly median pay rates.

The American cities close the top of the scale were Chicago, at 7th place, Miami at 11th and Los Angeles at 13th, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The study also found that New Yorker work an average of 1847 hours a year and take 27 days of paid vacation. City residents have to work 11 minutes on average to afford a Big Mac, and 24 hours to afford an iPhone 6. [WSJ] – Ariel Stulberg