A new phone costs 13 workdays on a ₩2.5M monthly salary
A ₩1,550,000 phone is hard to feel as a number. “Thirteen days of work” lands differently.
How to convert a price into work hours
Find your hourly wage, then divide the price by it.
- Monthly work hours = weekly hours × 52 ÷ 12
- Hourly wage = monthly take-home pay ÷ monthly work hours
- Hours needed = price ÷ hourly wage
The point is to use take-home pay, not gross salary. You buy things with after-tax money.
At ₩2.5M take-home and 40 hours a week
That is about 173 work hours a month and roughly ₩14,423 an hour. With an 8-hour day:
| Item | Price | Work time | Workdays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iced Americano | ₩4,500 | about 19 min | 0.04 |
| Wireless earbuds | ₩359,000 | about 24.9 hours | about 3.1 |
| New flagship phone | ₩1,550,000 | about 107.5 hours | about 13.4 |
A coffee is 19 minutes and feels light. Every day, though, it is about 9 hours 20 minutes over 30 days, more than a full workday. A phone is over two and a half weeks of work.
Overtime changes the wage
Put overtime into weekly hours and the wage drops, so the same item costs more hours. At 50 hours a week the wage is about ₩11,538 and the phone takes about 134 hours. That is closer to how the price actually feels.
Counting commute time as part of work lowers the wage further. That approach is covered in A 10% raise that lowers your real hourly wage by 4%.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use gross pay?
You can, but take-home pay is better. Gross pay makes the wage look higher than it is, so things look cheaper.
What if my income varies, like a freelancer’s?
Use the average income and hours of the last few months. Trying different months shows how much heavier the same item is in a lean month.
Can I change the 8-hour day?
The day length is weekly hours divided by five, so changing weekly hours changes it too. 40 hours a week is an 8-hour day, 50 hours is 10.
To use your own pay, try How many hours of work is this?.