Yahoo Finance How fast the world's richest earn your salary
Long-held wisdom says money makes more money, and this is very true for the world's wealthiest people.
UK discounting site vouchercloud.com recently analysed each country's richest person to see how fast she or he would make the yearly salary of the average worker.
Indian business magnate Mukesh Ambani is the fastest to make his country's average wage. It takes him just 7 seconds to earn the US$1,677.85 (AU$2,548) in the typical Indian yearly paycheque.
Ambani makes US$7.1 billion a year.
This doesn't mean he can do as much work in seven seconds an average Indian citizen does in twelve months. It means the enormous amount of assets wealthy people already possess keep appreciating and generating income.
At the other end of the scale, it could be argued Australia has the most egalitarian economy using this formula.
Mining entrepreneur Gina Rinehart needs 3 hours and 38 minutes to earn the yearly salary of the average Australian. This is the longest time among the 41 countries analysed.
Vouchercloud.com calculated that Rinehart's has an annual income of AU$150 million compared to the average Australian salary of AU$63,000.
The world's richest man, Jeff Bezos, came in ninth on the list. He takes 1 minute and 42 seconds to make the typical American's US$51,485 salary.
There are also online calculators where you can plug in your own yearly salary to see how fast the world's wealthiest would earn that amount. You vs Billionaire is one and an Australian version named You vs Gina Rinehart.
The vouchercloud.com report was compiled from Forbes and World Bank figures.
Here are all 41 countries analysed:
Country | Richest person | Industry | Richest person income (USD) | Average person: salary (USD) | How long does it take to earn the average citizen’s salary ? | |
1 | India | Mukesh Ambani | Oil & Gas | $7.1bn | $1,677.85 | 7 seconds |
2 | China | Ma Huateng | Tech | $6.4bn | $6,567.93 | 32.38 seconds |
3 | France | Bernard Arnault & family | Retail | $31.7bn | $32,554.73 | 32.41 seconds |
4 | Mexico | Carlos Slim Helu | Telecoms | $5.2bn | $6,971.89 | 42 seconds |
5 | Spain | Amancio Ortega | Retail | $14bn | $23,216.44 | 52 seconds |
6 | Egypt | Nassef Sawiris | Construction | $1bn | $2,141.97 | 1 minute, 8 seconds |
7 | Vietnam | Pham Nhat Vuong | Real Estate | $0.7bn | $1,929.36 | 1 minute, 27 seconds |
8 | Philippines | Manuel Villar | Real Estate | $1.1bn | $3,296.52 | 1 minute, 35 seconds |
9 | United States | Jeff Bezos | Retail, Tech | $15.9bn | $51,484.94 | 1 minute, 42 seconds |
10 | Canada | David Thomson | Media | $10.5bn | $36,633.83 | 1 minute, 50 seconds |
11 | Malaysia | Robert Kuok | Palm Oil, Shipping, Real Estate | $2.1bn | $7,675.92 | 1 minute, 55 seconds |
12 | Ukraine | Rinat Akhmetov | Steel, Coal | $0.6bn | $2,333.03 | 2 minutes, 2 seconds |
13 | Colombia | Luis Carlos Sarmiento | Finance | $1.3bn | $5,209.41 | 2 minutes, 7 seconds |
14 | Austria | Dietrich Mateschitz | Food And Drink | $9.6bn | $38,747.99 | 2 minutes, 7 seconds |
15 | United Kingdom | Denise Coates | Gambling | $6.6bn | $34,188.97 | 2 minutes, 59 seconds |
16 | Turkey | Erman Ilicak | Construction | $1.3bn | $8,690.23 | 3 minutes, 31 seconds |
17 | Japan | Tadashi Yanai & family | Retail | $4.3bn | $31,107.45 | 3 minutes, 48 seconds |
18 | Pakistan | Shahid Khan | Sports | $0.2bn | $1,541.44 | 4 minutes, 3 seconds |
19 | Algeria | Issad Rebrab & family | Food And Drink | $0.4bn | $3,263.28 | 4 minutes, 17 seconds |
20 | Brazil | Joseph Safra | Finance | $1bn | $8,338.76 | 4 minutes, 23 seconds |
21 | Armenia | Samval Karapetyan | Real Estate | $0.4bn | $3,428.80 | 4 minutes, 31 seconds |
22 | eSwatini | Nathan Kirsh | Food And Drink | $0.3bn | $2,736.42 | 4 minutes, 47 seconds |
23 | Sweden | Stefan Persson | Retail | $4bn | $45,159.06 | 5 minutes, 56 seconds |
24 | Denmark | Anders Holch Povlsen | Retail | $4.1bn | $48,267.16 | 6 minutes, 11 seconds |
25 | Italy | Giovanni Ferrero | Food And Drink | $2.2bn | $26,537.36 | 6 minutes, 20 seconds |
26 | South Africa | Nicky Oppenheimer | Diamonds | $0.4bn | $4,966.31 | 6 minutes, 32 seconds |
27 | Netherlands | Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken | Food And Drink | $3.1bn | $40,544.91 | 6 minutes, 52 seconds |
28 | Russia | Leonid Mikhelson | Oil & Gas | $0.4bn | $8,519.31 | 11 minutes, 11 seconds |
29 | Finland | Antti Herlin | Engineering | $1.2bn | $37,828.71 | 16 minutes, 34 seconds |
30 | New Zealand | Graeme Hart | Finance | $1.1bn | $34,960.23 | 16 minutes, 42 seconds |
31 | Czech Republic | Petr Kellner | Finance, Telecoms | $0.4bn | $15,002.49 | 19 minutes, 43 seconds |
32 | UAE | Majid Al Futtaim & family | Real Estate, Retail | $1bn | $37,720.60 | 19 minutes, 50 seconds |
33 | Cyprus | John Fredriksen | Shipping | $0.4bn | $21,477.43 | 28 minutes, 13 seconds |
34 | Switzerland | Gianluigi & Rafaela Aponte | Shipping | $1bn | $64,314.49 | 33 minutes, 48 seconds |
35 | Montenegro | Thaksin Shinawatra | Real Estate, Telecoms | $0.1bn | $6,961.66 | 36 minutes, 35 seconds |
36 | Israel | Eyal Ofer | Real Estate, Shipping | $0.5bn | $34,949.56 | 36 minutes, 44 seconds |
37 | Ireland | Pallonji Mistry | Construction | $0.5bn | $37,957.23 | 39 minutes, 54 seconds |
38 | Belgium | Eric Wittouck | Finance | $0.4bn | $35,781.10 | 47 minutes, 1 second |
39 | Portugal | Maria Fernanda Amorim & family | Energy | $0.1bn | $17,188.42 | 1 hour, 30 minutes, 36 seconds |
40 | Iceland | Thor Bjorgolfsson | Finance | $0.2bn | $59,619.51 | 2 hour, 36 minutes, 36 seconds |
41 | Australia | Gina Rinehart | Mining | $0.1bn | $41,489.48 | 3 hour, 37 minutes, 48 seconds |
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