Minutes of Work to Buy a Street Meal: 7 Cities Ranked (2026)
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Travellers love to say street food is cheap, and for a visitor with a foreign salary it usually is. But what does a plate of rice or a currywurst cost for someone who earns the legal minimum wage in that city? We turned each price into minutes of work.
The result flips the usual picture. A currywurst with fries in Berlin costs about 19 minutes of minimum-wage work. A plate of cơm tấm, broken rice with grilled pork, in Ho Chi Minh City costs about 118 minutes, almost two hours, even though it's far cheaper in dollars.
Seven cities, seven signature street meals, one number each. Here they are, counted down from the quickest to earn to the slowest.
How we ranked: Minutes of work = typical 2026 street price of one serving ÷ the legal minimum hourly wage that applies in that city × 60. Minimum wages are the 2026 statutory rates: Germany €13.90/hr (national), New York City $17.00/hr, UK National Living Wage £12.71/hr (age 21+, from April 2026), Bangkok ฿400/day, Mexico's general-zone MXN 315.04/day, Jakarta's provincial minimum Rp5,729,876/month and Vietnam's Region I rate ₫25,500/hr. Daily rates are divided by an 8-hour legal working day; Jakarta's monthly rate is divided by 173 hours, the formula in Indonesian regulation PP 35/2021. Prices are typical stall prices reported in 2025–2026 news and food guides (the UK figure is Seafish's national average for cod and chips). Where sources give a range, we used a typical mid-range price, not the cheapest stall. Caveats: minimum wage is not average pay, and in several of these cities many people work informally, below or outside the minimum; prices vary by stall and neighbourhood; the meals are different dishes, chosen as each city's signature one-person street serving; the UK row uses a national average price and wage rather than a single city.
#7Berlin19 minutes for currywurst · €4.50 · min. wage €13.90/hr
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A currywurst with fries at a classic Berlin stand such as Konnopke's Imbiss costs around €4.50, which is about 19 minutes at Germany's €13.90 minimum wage. Currywurst is sliced grilled sausage under curry-spiced ketchup, usually credited to Herta Heuwer's Berlin stand in 1949. Look for the old imbiss stands in Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg, and skip the tourist-zone markups.
#6New York City35 minutes for chicken over rice · $10 · min. wage $17/hr
Photo: rpongsaj (CC BY 2.0, Flickr)
New York's halal cart chicken over rice now costs about $10 at a typical cart, roughly 35 minutes at the city's $17 minimum wage. Chopped griddled chicken over yellow rice with white sauce and hot sauce, it grew up feeding the city's taxi drivers in the 1990s. Carts in Midtown and Lower Manhattan serve it from lunch until late.
#5Jakarta36 minutes for bakso · Rp 20k · min. wage Rp 33.1k/hr
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A bowl of bakso, meatballs in clear beef broth with noodles, costs anywhere from Rp10,000–15,000 at a street cart to Rp20,000–24,000 at well-known Jakarta shops. At a typical Rp20,000 that's about 36 minutes at Jakarta's 2026 minimum wage. Pushcart bakso sellers roam residential streets across the city, and every neighbourhood has a favourite.
#4UK54 minutes for fish and chips · £11.41 · min. wage £12.71/hr
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The average portion of cod and chips in Britain cost £11.41 in 2026, about 54 minutes at the £12.71 National Living Wage. Prices have nearly doubled since 2020 as fish, oil and energy got dearer. London chippies often charge more; northern shops are usually cheaper.
#3Bangkok72 minutes for pad kra pao · ฿60 · min. wage ฿50/hr
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Pad kra pao, holy-basil stir-fry over rice, costs about ฿50–70 at a Bangkok neighbourhood stall. At ฿60 that's 72 minutes at Bangkok's ฿400 daily minimum wage. It's cooked to order in a couple of minutes and is the default lunch for many Thais; expect to pay more on Khao San Road.
Tacos de canasta, the steamed 'basket tacos' sold from bicycles across Mexico City, cost about 14–17 pesos each in 2026. A four-taco serving at around MXN 60 is about 91 minutes at the general-zone minimum wage. Vendors usually set up near offices and metro stations in the morning.
#1Ho Chi Minh City118 minutes for broken rice · ₫50k · min. wage ₫25.5k/hr
Photo: Alpha (CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Cơm tấm, broken rice topped with a grilled pork chop and usually shredded pork skin and a fried egg, starts at about ₫40,000–50,000 at everyday Saigon shops; famous names charge two or three times that. At ₫50,000 it costs roughly 118 minutes, almost two hours, at Vietnam's highest regional minimum wage of ₫25,500 an hour. It's the city's signature plate, eaten from breakfast to late at night.
Next time a street meal feels like a bargain, remember that it's a very different deal for the person cooking it. We plan to update this ranking each year as wages and prices change.
