Here's some food for thought: A fresh graduate earning around S$3,000 per month -- S$2,400 take-home pay after CPF deduction -- would need to work 14.4 days just to afford a new iPhone 12 Pro, which was just launched on Oct. 14, 1:30am, Singapore time.

That is, without spending a single cent on food, transport, and paying bills, of course.

And the new iPhone 12 Pro has to be bought without chargers and earphones that are sold separately.

iPhone 12 Pro affordability index

This sobering detail was made clear via Polish coupon aggregator Picodi, which published an affordability index, comparing a range of countries' mean monthly salaries against the local listed prices of the iPhone 12 Pro (128GB).

New iPhone 12 Pro will take average Singaporean 8.1 days of work

However, according to Picodi, it takes a Singaporean just 8.1 days of work just to afford to buy an iPhone 12 Pro (128GB).

This is because Picodi is using data derived from the Ministry of Manpower's statistics, which shows the mean monthly salary of S$5,549 (S$4,255 take-home after CPF deduction).

In other words, a Singaporean earning the average gross monthly salary of S$5,549 will take 8.1 days of work to earn enough money to buy an iPhone 12 Pro (128GB).

This figure is calculated by dividing the take-home salary against an estimated 21 work days in each month, and then finding out the number of working days needed to pay for the listed price of S$1,649 for the iPhone 12 Pro (128GB).

In comparison with the 2019 iPhone index, Singapore’s result improved by 0.3 days in 2020.

Picking median salary instead of mean

However, a more accurate estimate of how many days it may take a Singaporean to earn enough for a brand-new iPhone 12 Pro would be 9.5 days.

This is calculated by taking the current median monthly salary of S$4,563 (S$3,650 take-home), instead of relying on the mean.

In Malaysia: 29 days

And whenever national comparisons are on offer, Singaporeans will no doubt look north to see how our neighbours fare.

As the table by Picodi shows, it will take Malaysians 29.1 days of work to afford to buy an iPhone 12 Pro (128GB) sold in Malaysia -- more than three times the number of days that Singaporeans need to work.

We deliver more stories to you on LinkedIn

Top image via Picodi