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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 337
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 Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:20 pm Post subject: Cost of living in the Gulf |
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I've been living in Qatar for about 7-8 years. I am now on my second job (slightly better paid than the former job, more hours but better students). The article is no surprise. This is not a good time to relocate to Dubai, I presume. There are no pension schemes for most Gulf teaching jobs unless you work a school or organization that that provides one. It's time they started offered pension plans but I seriously doubt whether most places ever would for expat teachers.
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Doha second most expensive city in Mideast
8/27/2009 The Peninsula
DOHA: Doha is the second most expensive city in the Arab world, according to a latest study. The USB, one of the world�s leading financial firms, recently released the 14th edition of its �Prices and Earnings� review which has included Doha for the first time in the list of 73 international cities.
Placed in the 39th position in global ratings, Doha is the second most expensive city in the Middle East after Dubai and before Manama. The rating is based on 122 common goods and services. The study looks at the prices of goods and services, and wages and working hours for 14 professionals in 73 cities round the world.
The study reveals that Dubai has surpassed New York and London which were the biggest financial cities in the world. The finical crisis had lead to fluctuation in the rankings of many cities. London which was the second most expensive in the 2006 review plummeted nearly 20 places, landing in the middle of the Western European rankings. Doha is the most expensive city in the world when it comes to a low-class furnished four bedroom flat. With a monthly rent of
$4,210, even posh cities like New York ($4,110) and Dubai ($3,950) come after Doha.
However, in high-class four-bedroom apartments, Dubai is one of the most expensive following New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. In Dubai, such apartments cost $7,090, whereas in Doha they cost $5,580 and $ 3,400 in Manama.
The average rent in most local houses in Qatar is $1,650, $2,160 in Dubai and $890in Manama. With this Doha and Dubai rank among the top 10 most expensive cities in terms of average rents.
Expenditure on some of the 122 goods and services in Doha came to $2,006, while in Dubai it was $2,522 and in Manama $1,773.
One of the common features of �Prices and Earnings� is the �Big Mac index�, which has been a trusty indicator of how long an average wage-earner has to work in order to afford that universal meal in each city. This type of comparison is ideal for products that can be purchased around the world in the same quality � products such as an iPod.
People in Doha had to work more as per this index. To earn a Big Mac, people here had to work 34 minutes, whereas in Dubai people could earn the snack with 18 minutes of work and in Manama with 25 minutes of work. To buy an 8 GB iPod nano, Doha residents would have to labour for 35 minutes, compared to 20 minutes and 23 minutes for those in Dubai and Manama, respectively.
While Zurich in Switzerland paid its employees the most (more than $22 an hour), Dubai paid an average of just $10.10, Doha $5.40 and Manama $6.30. The lowest pay was in Mumbai, where workers received an average of just $1.20 an hour.
Food prices are the highest in Japan, at $710, and Geneva ($660) based on 39 standard western food items. In Doha, food cost $379, in Dubai $426 and in Manama $341. Mumbai had the cheapest foods,
costing $153.
Taxi prices were the cheapest in Doha at $3.69 for a five-kilometre ride. In Dubai, the same ride cost $4.27 and in Manama $10.61.
Meanwhile, an evening three-course-meal in a good restaurant in Doha cost $59, ranking it the fourth most expensive place, close behind Dubai where such a meal cost $60.
Also, for a short break, which includes an overnight stay in a first-class hotel and various other services, the city could be the second most expensive after Tokyo. A break in Doha and in London cost $1,000 each, following Tokyo, where it can cost $1,130.
The ultra-liberal economic policies of Qatar and Dubai have created an extremely favourable environment for foreign companies and workers here. However, employees in Middle East work more than their counterparts in other countries. Workers in Doha, Dubai and Manama racked up longer hours, averaging 2,210 per year, 308 more than the global average.
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Last edited by lollaerd on Tue Sep 08, 2009 9:57 am; edited 1 time in total |
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helenl
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Posts: 1202
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| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:04 pm Post subject: |
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Why would they offer pensions to contract workers? If you're willing to work from contract to contract (as most teachers in the GCC are) - then you better be working on your own "pension" plan.
If people weren't willing to work with the current system, they'd offer different types of incentives other than pensions - probably higher salaries - so that we could develop our own pension plans. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:49 pm Post subject: |
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I would expect that the average Gulf teacher only does a contract or two, so why would they want to bother to provide us transients with a pension plan? We all get a decent tax-free salary and are provided housing(or an allowance), travel tickets each year, medical care, gratuities... and a safe, relatively unpolluted environment. If we get all this and don't have the good sense to save for retirement... 
Of course, we could all go back to our home countries... where there wouldn't be jobs for the majority of us... get crappy salaries with few if any benefits, pay lots of nice taxes, have shorter holidays with no money to be able to go anywhere, not make enough to buy a home... but hey... we'd probably be on our national pension plan... which will about cover our food when we retire... as long as we have lots of pasta and ground beef and cook it at home.
VS |
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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 337
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 9:57 am Post subject: |
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| Having just returned from Bahrain I can testify that it is cheaper than Qatar - hotels, restaurants, drinks etc. Qatar is way too expensive unless you are earning a good salary. |
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MrScaramanga
Joined: 12 Oct 2007
Posts: 221
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 3:15 pm Post subject: |
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| veiledsentiments wrote: |
and a safe, relatively unpolluted environment.
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Sorry to digress but the 'relatively unpolluted' part of the statement may have been true 10-15 years ago. No more... Dubai's beaches are actually disgustingly polluted with raw sewerage among other things... And there is a constant haze of smog over the much hyped Dubai skyline, pity!
MrS |
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helenl
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Posts: 1202
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 4:06 pm Post subject: |
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Not just Dubai, try Sharjah and the oil "land mines" one steps into on the beaches of Fujairah.
There was a recent report on the elevated saline levels in the Gulf because the desalination plants "dump" the salt removed from potable water back into the sea - there was no mention of the holistic environmental impact, just that it would (in time) mean that desalination plants, at current levels/technology, wouldn't be able to keep up. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 4:09 pm Post subject: |
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You note I put "relatively."  (it is still no comparison to Cairo, Bangkok or Bejing) I was always leery of the beaches myself as I know how rules are made to be ignored. But, even back then Dubai was a place that I avoided unless my employer forced me. There was always the dust in the air from all the construction in AD and Dub... and the increase in traffic can't be doing any good. RAK now has the cement factories or quarries or whatever they are. How about Al-Ain? Is it still OK out there?
VS |
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