USA
$7.25/hrUnited States
Official hourly · Effective 2026-07-01
English
Minimum wage & GDP explorer
World Economy Atlas · base dataset reviewed 2026-09-09
English
Compare the basis behind minimum wages and GDP
The atlas covers 218 economies, with hourly comparisons for 140. It distinguishes 43 published hourly rates from 97 equivalents converted from daily, weekly or monthly amounts. Select a place to check its local amount, coverage, observation or effective date, and official source.
Reference dates differ between records. A USD ranking is not a ranking of take-home pay or living standards, and GDP per capita is not an individual salary.
Visible matches218
Hourly coverage140 / 218
Active metricHourly minimum wage
≤ $4.00$4.00–$9.00$9.00–$15.00> $15.00Regional detailSmall economyNo data
FILTERED RANKING
Hourly minimum wage by country
Showing 20 of 218 results
START WITH YOUR COUNTRY
My country vs another country
Choose your country and another country, then press Compare countries. These choices stay independent of the map selection and filters.
Select two countries and press Compare countries to see the amount and percentage difference.
USD amounts use the dataset's published rounded values, not live exchange rates. How exchange rates affect this comparison →
A COMPARISON FROM YOUR SELECTION
United States: are you comparing like with like?
The first economy keeps your clicked map selection. Map filters do not apply to this comparison; choose a second economy to compare hourly wage amounts and coverage.
| Check | United States | Korea, Rep. |
|---|---|---|
| USD / hour | $7.25 | $7.26 |
| Hourly basis | Published hourly floor | Published hourly floor |
| Source period · effective date | 2026 current · 2026-07-01 | 2026 current · 2026-01-01 |
The displayed hourly comparison for United States is about 1.00× that of Korea, Rep.. This compares the published rounded values, not take-home income or living standards.
Matching hourly categories do not establish matching worker, age or regional coverage.
United States
Federal floor for FLSA-covered workers; state and local rates can be higher—open the U.S. region view
Official current U.S. dollar-denominated rate
Official or statistical source for this record ↗Korea, Rep.
National minimum wage; official monthly equivalent includes 40 weekly work hours and 8 paid weekly-rest hours
Official current rate converted with the 2025 World Bank official exchange rate
Official or statistical source for this record ↗BEYOND THE RANKING
Six questions for comparing world wages and GDP
Start by asking why a number looks larger. These explanations and hypothetical examples help you interpret the atlas and avoid conclusions the data cannot support.
Does a higher dollar wage mean a better living standard?
The map compares statutory wage floors and economic output, not household budgets. A wage floor is neither an average salary nor take-home pay. Two workers with the same converted hourly wage can have different paid hours, taxes, housing costs and access to public services.
For a hypothetical monthly budget, a worker earning $2,000 and paying $1,200 in rent has $800 before other costs; a worker earning $1,500 and paying $500 in rent has $1,000. The wage ranking alone reverses neither rent nor tax into an affordability measure. This example omits taxes and all non-rent expenses to isolate the difference.
Use the map to identify a question worth investigating, then build a local-currency budget for the relevant city and household. Purchasing-power-parity data can help compare price levels, but this map's current-dollar figures are not PPP-adjusted and cannot substitute for that budget.
World Bank — purchasing power parities ↗Why an hourly equivalent is not always a legal hourly wage
Some official schedules publish an hourly floor; others specify daily, weekly or monthly amounts. EconoPi labels directly published hourly rates separately from normalized equivalents. For monthly observations without an official hourly rate, the comparison uses 40 hours × 52 weeks = 2,080 hours per year.
For a hypothetical $2,000 monthly floor, $2,000 × 12 ÷ 2,080 is $11.54 an hour. If someone instead assumes 48 weekly hours, the same monthly amount becomes $9.62. The difference comes entirely from the denominator, not a change in the law or pay. Neither invented hourly number establishes an employer's legal obligation.
Before citing a rank, inspect the basis label, effective date and official local amount. Paid rest days, age bands, occupation and sector coverage may differ. A statutory monthly equivalent can include paid time that is not the same as hours actually worked.
ILOSTAT — wage concepts and coverage ↗A country can move down the dollar ranking without a pay cut
The dollar value depends on two quantities: the local wage and the conversion rate. Suppose a wage stays at 1,000 local units. At 10 local units per dollar it equals $100; at 12 local units per dollar it equals $83.33. The dollar comparison falls 16.7% even though the legal local wage is unchanged.
That is why this atlas displays source periods and conversion notes. A current legal wage may be converted with a completed annual exchange-rate observation. It is useful for a documented comparison, but it is not a same-day payroll or remittance quote. Keep both dates when reusing the number.
To compare changes over time, first ask whether you want local nominal wage growth, inflation-adjusted wage growth or a dollar comparison. These are three different questions and can move in different directions. The atlas does not turn the nominal USD ranking into a real-wage growth series.
World Bank — official exchange rate, period average ↗How to compare Korea, Japan and the United States
A useful comparison starts with the job's location and coverage, not the largest number on the map. For Korea, inspect the national hourly source and the separate monthly-equivalent note. For Japan, open the regional view and choose the relevant prefecture rather than treating a regional rate as a national floor.
For the United States, the national comparison represents the federal floor for covered workers. State and local rules can lead to a different applicable amount. Open the state view, then follow the official source to check the work location, worker category and effective date. The atlas does not adjudicate which rule applies to a particular employment contract.
For each selected place, write down the official local rate, unit, effective date, coverage and the exchange-rate period. Compare like units first and only then compare dollars. A regional rate and a nationwide statistical observation should not silently become equivalent entries in a single ranking.
US Department of Labor — state wage schedules; see each map record for other countries ↗GDP per capita is not a person's salary
GDP describes production within an economy. Dividing it by population produces a per-person statistic, not the amount paid to a typical worker. The denominator includes people who do not work, while output is not distributed equally as wages. A country with high GDP per capita can still contain low-paid households.
Switch between total GDP and GDP per capita to separate economic scale from output per resident. Then inspect the observation year: 'latest available' can mean different years for different economies. Current US dollars also include exchange-rate effects and are not a constant-price growth measure.
Do not divide an hourly minimum wage by annual GDP per capita and interpret the result as a wage share: the units, populations and concepts do not match. Questions about typical earnings require wage-distribution data, such as a median with a defined worker population.
World Bank — GDP per capita in current US dollars ↗A missing wage is not a wage of zero
A blank or unranked value can mean no single national floor, a sector-specific schedule, a regional system, an unverified current amount or an unsuitable currency conversion. Those situations are not interchangeable. EconoPi shows researched status instead of assigning a made-up national number.
Filtering to comparable observations makes a cleaner numerical comparison but changes the population being compared. A top-ranked value is the top among the included observations under the selected metric and filters, not proof of the world's best-paid workforce. The list of economies also includes territories; it is not a count of sovereign states.
For a reproducible citation, save the economy or region, selected metric, local amount and unit, effective or observation date, conversion period and official source URL. Include any age, occupation or industry condition. A screenshot of a dollar figure without those details is not enough to reconstruct the comparison.
ILOSTAT — statistical definitions and comparability ↗Try a comparison yourself
- Select an economy or region and inspect its official local amount and coverage.
- Distinguish a published hourly floor from an equivalent, and record wage and exchange-rate dates.
- Choose a second place with comparable units and coverage, then compare housing costs and taxes in a separate budget.
Prepared by EconoPi · explanations reviewed September 19, 2026. Hypothetical examples are not actual country wages. Data periods and legal effective dates remain specific to each map record.
READ THE DATA CORRECTLY
Current law, observation year and converted comparisons are different things.
All 218 economies are represented by a comparable wage or an explicit researched wage-system status. 27 countries also have verified regional views where one national number is not enough.
Hourly coverage: all 140 comparable economies — 43 published hourly floors and 97 clearly labeled equivalents (4 daily, 3 weekly and 90 monthly source schedules).
This dataset combines official legal minimum-wage schedules with historical statistical observations. The September 9, 2026 review updates selected national rates; it does not certify every observation as current. Official current legal rates are preferred, including Eurostat 2026-S2; older ILOSTAT or OECD observations retain their source year. Regional, sectoral, occupational, nationality-limited and other non-universal observations are excluded from the country ranking.
The 217 World Bank economies plus Taiwan are represented by either a comparable wage value or an explicit researched wage-system status; this is not a count of sovereign states. Values remain imperfectly comparable because coverage, age rules, hours and benefits differ. Economies without a usable national wage observation and comparable conversion are excluded from the wage ranking. Historical observations are labeled and are not certified as current legal rates.
Latest available observed GDP and GDP per capita in current U.S. dollars from the World Bank World Development Indicators. A 2026 forecast is not substituted for an earlier observation. Taiwan is outside this World Bank series and has no GDP value here.
Start with a question about your money
Explore wage evidence, add your own living costs, then plan what to do with the money left.
Would a higher salary leave me better off?
Compare income and housing costs for two jobs or places. Find the money left and the pay needed to match your current budget.
Compare salary & living costs →What does another country’s wage really mean?
Distinguish legal minimums from converted values, with regional coverage, effective dates and sources.
Explore the wage map →What should I plan with the money left?
Find a tool for saving, paying down debt or retirement, and compare the assumptions that matter to you.
Find a tool for your goal →Minimum wages are gross floors, not average salaries or living standards. Source periods and legal coverage vary. How to read the data →