[pvtmert]

interesting to see Turkey is leading the list. Although it is well known that Turkey is overall cheap compared to the Europe in terms of basic goods, apparently inflation on the minimum wage is greater than the inflation of the basic goods. However, I would like to note that cheapest of the cheapest things you can get in Turkey will have significantly less quality than European counterparts. Even the "rejects" from EU being sold in internal market. This includes produce with risky levels of GMO. I think the "Big-Mac Index" would have a comparable result. Just divide minimum wage into how many meals per month (30 days * 3 meals-per-day = 90 meals-per-month) times Big-Mac price. (~6 euros?). So, 540 euros. Given ~12.82 euros minimum wage in Germany (gross), you gotta work 540 / 12,82 = ~42,122 hours per month. Which slightly above 1 week given 40h work-week or the "German" way, ~6 days with 35h work-week...

[mickeymounds]

Turkey topping the “fewest hours” list doesn’t mean “everything is great”; it just means that for a single renter the price of a minimal basket divided by typical local net hourly pay is low in time terms. We’re measuring affordability in hours, not product quality.

Quality: Out of scope here. The basket is priced to minimal staples (rent, basic utilities, staple groceries, local transit). We’ll add a “quality bands” sensitivity so readers can see how hours move if you upgrade items.

Big-Mac Index: That’s a tradables proxy and food-only. Our hours include rent + utilities, which usually dominate time cost. Also, you used minimum wage; we use typical/median net hourly pay—minimum-wage calculations will overstate hours vs our method.

Your math note: €540 ÷ €12.82 ≈ 42 hours, but again, that’s food-only and gross wage, so it isn’t comparable to our basket or denominator.

Happy to post Turkey’s component line-items (rent/utilities/food/transit) and the sources in the article for auditability.