A new cost of living index has revealed that people in Lichfield have to work longest in the country to afford a sausage roll.
The so-called Greggs Sausage Roll Index has been compiled to showcase differences in living standards across the UK.
Put together by investingreviews.co.uk, it analysed local median hourly pay rates from the Office of National Statistics to demonstrate how long people in different areas of the UK had to work in order to pay for a sausage roll from the high street bakery chain.
While it found that Londoners only had to work for 2 minutes and 58 seconds, Lichfield employees had to ply their trade for an average of 4 minutes and 54 seconds to buy the pastry treat.
The index was modelled on the Big Mac Index published by The Economist since the 1980s to measure purchasing power across different nations.
Independent economist John Hawksworth said:
“The analysis is a bit of fun with the sausage roll standing in for the Big Mac as a standardised product to compare purchasing power across different places – but it does also make the serious point that there are very large variations in income levels across our towns and cities.
“These local earnings gaps are driven by variations in productivity across places that reflect deep-seated disparities in education, opportunity and infrastructure across the country.”
John Hawksworth
Lichfield finished top of the table for the longest time worked to buy a sausage roll, with Middlesbrough, Hereford, Nuneaton and Truro second on the table with 4 minutes 48 seconds.
Third in the table was Mansfield with 4 minutes 46 seconds.
