The most expensive were Zurich, Geneva and New York City, according to the prices for a standardised basket of 122 goods and services.

Londoners have to work an average of 41.2 hours to be able to buy an iPhone 6 – far more than their counterparts in New York City, LA, Miami, Chicago, Zurich or Geneva, where it takes less than 30 hours to notch up enough readies to splurge on the smartphone.

Bill O’Neill, head of the United Kingdom investment office at UBS Wealth Management, indicated the study showed the cost of living in the capital was relatively high compared to earnings.

The wage value has been best described by comparing domestic purchasing power for goods that are as homogenous as possible worldwide. Tel Aviv workers earn the highest average gross wages in the Middle East, however workers in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, earn the highest net wages. Dubai is the world’s fourth most expensive city for renting with an average unfurnished three-room apartment rents for $3240 a month with only London ($3350), Hong Kong ($4220), and New York ($4320) more expensive.

When it comes to wage levels, however, Tel Aviv is down in thirty-third place, meaning that salaries don’t keep up with what Tel Avivians have to pay for goods and services. A Big Mac costs nearly three hours of average earnings in Nairobi, compared with just nine minutes in Hong Kong.

The report added that Manama workers get the most paid vacation days in the world, with 34 days on average a year.

UBS said that the decision in January by the Swiss National Bank to abruptly abandon its cap of 1.20 francs per euro, leading to a surge in the franc’s value, had hugely altered the indicators. Eurozone cities plunged. Russian and Ukrainian cities plummeted due to the Ukrainian conflict and ensuing Russian sanctions, with Kiev now at the bottom of the price and wage charts.