Q COSTA RICA — Workers in three Latin American countries need significantly more hours to earn US$1,000 compared to workers in 38 OECD economies worldwide.
Costa Rica ranks fourth worldwide, needing about 53 hours of work on average to earn that income. Colombia leads the list at 86 hours, followed by Mexico with 78 hours, and South Africa in third place with 60 hours.
In Latin America, Chile ranks sixth among the countries needing the most hours to earn that income, averaging 51 hours.
In contrast, European countries dominate the list of places where less time is needed to earn $1,000, where the best-performing economies require less than 20 hours to reach the same amount.
Luxembourg and Iceland top the list with just 16 hours, followed by Switzerland with 18 hours, and Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands with 19 hours.
The study compares the time needed to earn US$1,000 using average annual salaries expressed in dollars adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), a method that takes into account differences in the cost of living between countries.
The calculations do not include taxes.
Higher wages in these countries are linked to strong financial and professional service sectors, advanced economies, high productivity, and coordinated social and labor policies.
The report highlights that low productivity, slow wage growth, high informality, and limited access to capital contribute to the longer work hours needed in Latin America.
Labor productivity in Latin America and the Caribbean rose by 2.2% in 2024 compared to the previous year, with Guyana leading the region with a remarkable 40.1% increase driven by its oil boom. Other countries showing productivity growth include Belize, Brazil, Barbados, and several others, though the region’s productivity growth still lags behind the global average.
This disparity in work hours and productivity underscores challenges in Latin America related to economic development and labor market conditions compared to more advanced economies.
The report also indicates that productivity growth is one of the main drivers for increasing income and reducing the number of hours needed to achieve the same wage level.
The ranking was compiled by Visual Capitalist using data from the 38 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies from different regions of the world and Our World in Data, and compares the performance of 38 economies from different regions of the world and published by Bloomberg Línea.
Top 10 OECD countries in hours required to earn US $1,000:
- Colombia 86
- Mexico 78
- Greece 60
- Costa Rica 53
- Hungary 51
- Chile 51
- Czech Republic 48
- Slovakia 47
- Portugal 45
- Poland 43
