How many days of work does a new iPhone 17 Pro cost? A Czech has to work less than a Pole, but more than a German

Have you ever wondered how long you have to work for a new iPhone? The new iPhone Affordability Index 2025 study brings surprising results. While the average Luxembourger can afford an iPhone 17 Pro 256 GB after three days of work, an Indian has to toil for an incredible 160 days for the same phone. And where does the Czech Republic stand in this ranking?

Czech Republic in the middle of the table, but the differences are vast

With 12 working days needed to buy Apple’s flagship phone, the Czech Republic ranked a solid 12th out of 33 surveyed countries. This places us in the better average – the global average is 26 days. For comparison, our northern neighbor Poland needs 17 days, while wealthier Germany gets by with just 5 days.

Austrians are also doing well, needing just 5 days. Surprisingly, Spain also performs well with 9 days, which is only slightly more than, for example, France (6 days) or Canada (5 days).

Luxembourg versus India: when the gap widens

The study reveals brutal inequality in global purchasing power. While a resident of Luxembourg can afford an iPhone 17 Pro after just 3 days of work, a worker in India has to work 51 times longer for the same phone. That’s not a typo – indeed 160 days, which is roughly half a year of regular work.

Paradoxically, it is in countries like India or the Philippines (101 days) where people work the longest workweeks, but their compensation is negligible compared to the price of premium electronics. In Vietnam, another country with long working hours, they need 99 days for an iPhone.

Swiss and Scandinavians can afford an iPhone within a week

At the opposite end of the spectrum, besides Luxembourg, we find primarily wealthy European countries. Switzerland and Denmark both need 4 days, as do the USA, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Scandinavian countries also perform excellently – Norway 4 days, Sweden 6 days, Finland 5 days.

The position of the United Arab Emirates with 8 days is interesting, indicating relatively high purchasing power in this country. Singapore also needs 8 days.

Methodology: eight-hour shifts and average wages

The study is based on the official US price of the iPhone 17 Pro (256 GB) at 1,099 dollars, which is approximately 22,700 Czech crowns at the current exchange rate. The authors used data from the International Labour Organization on average monthly wages and weekly working hours in individual countries.

From these data, they calculated how many eight-hour working days the average worker in a given country needs to afford an iPhone. In the case of the Czech Republic, with the average wage, this comes out to exactly 12 days.

iPhone as a measure of living standards

Although the iPhone is undoubtedly a premium product that is not a necessity, its affordability well illustrates the differences in purchasing power across the world. For some, it’s a phone for three days of work; for others, an unattainable luxury after half a year of toil.

The Czech Republic holds the golden mean in this comparison – we are not doing the worst, but we still have a long way to go to reach Western European levels. Twelve days of work for a phone is not a small amount, but given that the global average is double, we can be relatively satisfied. The question remains whether these differences will diminish over time or, on the contrary, deepen.

What do you think of the ranking and how the Czech Republic fares in it?

Source: tenscope