Fruit of labour: How many days do you need to work in Philippines to buy iPhone X?

Dubai - Given nature of wages, it will take months - several of it - before coughing up enough cash

Apple recently started selling the iPhone X in the Philippines - and it doesn't come cheap, as we told you the other day.
The 64GB and 256GB models are selling for 64,690 pesos and 73,990 pesos (about Dh4,700 and Dh5,400), respectively, in the country of 7,107 islands (though apparently it's up to 7,641 now).
Which makes you wonder: given the nature of wages in the nation, how long would it take one to cough up enough cash to get one?
A report on Entrepreneur Philippines has given us the interesting answer - though we have to tell you that we'll be tweaking that towards the end of this.
If we take into account the minimum daily wage being paid to workers in the Philippines, it'll be a long, patient wait to get that money altogether.
If we take the minimum wage in Metro Manila - also called the National Capital Region (NCR) - which is the country's highest at 491 pesos (about Dh36) a day, it will take 131.3 days (over four months) for someone earning that much to get his or hands on the 64GB iPhone X. And you'll have to work for almost three weeks more if you want the 256GB version, as it will take 150.7 days to do so (almost five months).
 

 
In the Visayas, class-A cities like Cebu have the highest wages in the area at 366 pesos (about Dh27). Which means it'll take 176.2 (almost six months) and 202.2 days (almost seven months) to cop the 64GB and 256 iPhone X, respectively.
In the Mindanao region located south of the country, cities like those in Davao - the hometown of President Rodrigo Duterte - have the highest salaries at 340 pesos (about Dh25), meaning one has to work for 189.7 and 217.6 days (that's over six and seven months), respectively.
Of course, there's always the 'cheaper' iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, which will take less time for someone to earn that cash.
Now here's the tweak we were talking about earlier.
While Entrepreneur Philippines quoted the Philippine Statistics Authority for the wage numbers, the Department of Labor and Employment's National Wages and Productivity Commission recently increased the minimum wages in the NCR; it now stands at 512 pesos (about Dh37), which came into effect recently on October 5.
So that brings down the number one needs to work to 130 days and 144.5 days for the 64GB and 256GB iPhone X, respectively - about a week shorter that the aforementioned ones.
Well, that's just a snapshot; the period to actually achieve the iPhone X goal is much longer because, of course, we're not counting income taxes and deductions here, as well as weekly off-days.
And, naturally, one has to eat and spend for every day stuff, right?
- alvin@khaleejtimes.com

• Mobiles
• Philippines