iPhone 18 Pro CLP 1,549,990
244 hours of work
January to mid February.
26th of 28. In Switzerland the same phone takes 30 hours; in Türkiye, 487.
* The 10% pension contribution not deducted: see the sums below.
The sums
The average full-time worker in Chile earns CLP 14,201,852 a year before tax and takes home CLP 13,191,889 after income tax and social security contributions (OECD, 2025, a single worker without children). Divided by 2,080 working hours, an hour of work pays CLP 6,342.
An iPhone 18 Pro: CLP 1,549,990 ÷ CLP 6,342 = 244 hours. January to mid February.
A Tesla Model Y: CLP 36,900,000 ÷ CLP 6,342 = 5,818 hours. Two whole working years, and the next until mid October.
A Big Mac: CLP 4,990 ÷ CLP 6,342 = 0.79 hours, or 47 minutes.
* On the average wage in Chile the OECD takes off income tax and a health contribution of 7% of pay, but not the 10% of pay that by law goes into a private pension fund (an AFP), nor the fund's commission on top. Taxing Wages leaves such payments out. With the 10% taken off, commission aside, the hours here all grow by 12%: the iPhone 18 Pro would take 274 hours (still 26th of 28), the Tesla 6,521 hours (34th of 37) and a Big Mac 53 minutes (still 33rd of 36).
The Tesla: Tesla sells no base Model Y in Chile; the Premium Rear-Wheel Drive is the cheapest. Before Tesla's CLP 100,000 registration and documentation fee (CLP 37,000,000 in all). Hours count 52 weeks of 40, whatever people in Chile actually work. More in what the index leaves out.
Sources
Pay: OECD, Taxing Wages 2026: net take-home pay of a single worker without children on 100% of the average wage, 2025 (a national estimate, as for four other countries). The caveat: sdmx.oecd.org and spensiones.cl.
Prices, checked 29 September 2026: Apple, the iPhone 18 Pro with 256 GB; Tesla, the cheapest Model Y on sale; The Economist, the Big Mac index, July 2026 (data, CC BY 4.0).