Area’s Workers Are Best Paid--Survey

Americans are the best-paid workers in the world, and workers in Los Angeles are the best-paid Americans, according to a new global survey of wages and prices conducted by Union Bank of Switzerland.

And while the cost of living is higher here than in most of the 49 cities studied, the purchasing power of paychecks in Los Angeles ranks third in the world, behind only Zurich and Geneva.

Workers in four American cities--Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Houston--took the top four spots in wages. The average wage-earner in Los Angeles brings home a third more than his counterpart in Zurich and Tokyo and twice as much as a Parisian or Londoner.

At the bottom of the world wage scale are laborers in Bombay, Manila, Jakarta and Cairo, who on average earn less than a tenth of U.S. wages.

But American cities rank high as well on the other side of the equation, the cost of goods, services and housing, the survey said. The cost of living was measured using a weighted “basket” of goods and services including food, clothing, toilet articles, appliances, utilities, transportation and housing.

The four U.S. cities were among the top 10 in the world in prices, joined by three capitals in the oil-rich Persian Gulf--Abu Dhabi, Manama, (Bahrain) and Jidda (Saudi Arabia). Rounding out the top 10 were Lagos (Nigeria), Tokyo and Oslo.

Apartment rents are particularly steep in the United States, especially in New York and Chicago. A furnished four-room apartment in a modern building in those two cities ranges in cost between $2,250 and $7,600 a month. The only other cities that come close are Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Lagos, Seoul and Tokyo.

Comparable flats in Los Angeles rent for between $840 and $1,450 a month.

U.S. cities led the pack in hotel and restaurant prices, too. A first-class hotel room in New York averages $210 a night, followed by Chicago at $200, Houston at $160 and Los Angeles at $150. Other cities with high lodging costs include Istanbul ($180), Jidda ($160), London ($150), Sao Paulo (Brazil) ($160) and Tokyo ($140).

Restaurant prices were topped by Abu Dhabi, where a simple steak dinner runs $59 a person. The same meal costs $35 in New York, $23 in Los Angeles and $5 in Jakarta.

PURCHASING POWER IN SELECTED CITIES The index reflects the relationship between a worker’s after-tax wages and the cost of certain goods and services, excluding rent. The higher a city appears on the list, the further a local wage earner’s paycheck will go.

City Net Wages Zurich 100 Geneva 99 Los Angeles 98 Luxembourg 94 Chicago 91 Houston 89 Toronto 88 Montreal 87 Amsterdam 83 New York 76 Sydney 75 Dusseldorf 74 Brussels 70 Paris 68 Vienna 65 Oslo 60 Copenhagen 61 Milan 61 Tokyo 57 London 56 Stockholm 52 Dublin 52 Athens 48 Madrid 46 Helsinki 44 Lisbon 28

Source: Union Bank of Switzerland