*Disclaimer: This article uses the approximate average foreign exchange rate between 2021, the publication date of a source article on the Big Mac Index, to April 2022. Therefore, it can be said that the gap in the Big Mac Index, and therefore the architects’ index, has become more dramatic recently with the severely weakened yen.

Recently, there were two interesting articles that stirred some introspection about our profession and its equity. The first article came from Bloomberg about the highest paid recent college graduates by college majors. [1] Usual suspects abound, all engineering by the way, highest coming in at $74,000 for computer engineering. On the other hand, the average salary for an entry level architect is about $44,409 in the USA. [2] Let that sink in… Not as glamorous as Brad Pitt makes it out to be in his movies, aye?

The second article was by an economist and Professor Emeritus Yukio Noguchi of Hitotsubashi University[3]. The theme was the “Big Mac index,” which is compiled every year by the British "The Economist” after surveying the prices of Big Macs around the world. Just for a non-Mac consumer like me, how much is a Big Mac in Japan anyway? The June 2021 survey shows that the price of a Big Mac in Japan is 390 yen, which translates to $3.54 at 109.94 yen to the dollar. In contrast, the price in the US is $5.65. Therefore, the price of a Big Mac in Japan is only 62.8% of the US price. Talk about getting the most bang for your bucks!

Now, the "Big Mac Index'' is calculated by the following formula:
((Big Mac price in dollars in non-US country)/(Big Mac price in the US)-1) x100
*Note that the Big Mac Index for the US is always zero by definition.
How does Japan look by this metric? Voila: [($3.54÷$5.65)-1]x100 = -37.2

According to Noguchi, if this value is negative and its absolute value is large, Japanese people will feel that prices are high when they visit the USA. In general, if a person from a country with a small Big Mac Index goes to a country with a large Big Mac Index, he/she will feel that prices are high. The most important takeaway is that the Big Mac Index represents the various countries’ purchasing power. For your reference the Big Mac Index for some countries, in diminishing order, as of June 2021 are: Switzerland (24.7), Norway (11.5), Sweden (9.6), EU bloc (-11.1), South Korea (-29.2), Argentina (-30.2), Thailand (-31.0), and Pakistan (-36.3).

This got me thinking of linkages between the two articles, about the equity of our profession in general, but also the equity of our profession across national borders.

As mentioned before, the average salary for an entry level architect in the US is about $44,409, which is about 5,134,213 yen. Noguchi’s article identified that the price of a Big Mac in Japan is 62.8％ of those in America. Let’s, for the fun of it, multiply 5,134,213 yen (roughly equivalent to $44,409) by 61.8%, and it comes out to 3,224,286 yen.

Now, the entry level architect, freshly licensed, in Japan earns about 3,312,000 yen annually, slightly higher and unimpressively surpassing than the Big Mac Index prorated figure for the average salary for an entry level architect. At approximately $28,648.97, this comes out to a whopping 64.5% of the average salary for an entry level architect in the US. 61.8% and 64.5% is wickedly close, within a margin of error.

Granted, things are inexpensive in Japan. Living in Japan, thank god, people have access to great food, public transportation, universal health system, and well, most things are cheaper.

But what does that say about our profession in general? What does that say about our country? Moreover, what does that say about our civilization as a whole? Remember that, in the US, the highest paid recent college graduates from computer engineering programs can earn up to $74,000 annually? At $44,409, average salary for an entry level architect, the discrepancy is 60%. This is our own eternal, internal Big Mac Index. The only way we can reach parity with other professions is going to be as challenging and tenuous as, yes, a country like Japan attempting to reach parity with other nations. No need for hubris, certainly, but we have to be mindful of what we do, of the value we provide the world, and shed the self-pitying sense of impotence. Or else our profession will not attract new talents, and hence undergo a kind of brain-drain. Let’s change our Big Mac Index.