How Much a Gallon of Gas Costs Measured in Hours Worked

By Paul Ausick Updated Jan 12, 5:54PM EST · Published Nov 11, 12:50PM EST

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How Much a Gallon of Gas Costs Measured in Hours Worked — © Thinkstock

U.S. drivers know that they’re getting a bargain when they are paying around $2.20 for a gallon of gasoline. Just a few years ago gasoline averaged almost $4.00 a gallon in the United States and everyone felt the pinch.

Cheap gasoline prices are relative. Some countries, like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, have vast oil reserves and support domestic demand with subsidies paid for the country’s exports. Other countries, like Australia and the United Kingdom, impose a higher minimum wage, which makes the price of gasoline relatively inexpensive when compared to what consumers earn. And a third group might include countries with both large reserves and a reasonably high minimum wage, like, for example, Canada and the United States.

Cost information website HowMuch.net has computed the cost of a gallon of gasoline for dozens of countries based on the amount of time it would take a person being paid that country’s minimum wage to earn enough money to buy a gallon of gasoline. Wages and gas prices were converted to nominal U.S. dollars. Countries that did not report a minimum wage or where average gas price data could not be located are not included.

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Here are the 10 countries where citizens have to work the least amount of time in order to buy a gallon of gasoline:

Venezuela: 10.59 minutes
Saudi Arabia: 14.03 minutes
Australia: 15.47 minutes
United States: 20.86 minutes
Luxembourg: 22.6 minutes
Canada: 23.25 minutes
Oman: 24.25 minutes
Norway*: 24.98 minutes
Monaco: 27.84 minutes
United Kingdom: 28.58 minutes

*Norway does not have an official minimum wage. Wage here is defined as 50% of average hourly wage for median household income at median hours worked. The poverty rate is defined as 50% of median income in Norway.

Here are the 10 countries where citizens have to work the longest time in order to pay for a gallon of gas:

Uganda: 350 hours
Cuba: 101.2 hours
Georgia: 57.8 hours
Bangladesh: 46.44 hours
The Gambia: 35.62 hours
Tanzania: 30.8 hours
Malawi: 24.06 hours
Kyrgyzstan: 24.00 hours
Guinea-Bissau: 21.25 hours
Madagascar: 19.26 hours

For source data, a large graphic and more details, visit the HowMuch.net website.

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About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.