{"id":123549,"date":"2016-05-15T19:30:28","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T17:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=123549"},"modified":"2016-05-13T17:11:27","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T15:11:27","slug":"how-long-it-would-take-to-become-the-richest-person-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/123549\/how-long-it-would-take-to-become-the-richest-person-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"How long it would take to become the richest person in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The massive wealth gap between the rich and the poor is a topic which gets pulled into focus on a regular basis on platforms such as the World Economic Forum, and Oxfam.<\/p>\n

Earlier in 2016, the latter, a charity and civil rights group, published a report showing that the 62 wealthiest individuals in the world hold the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world\u2019s population –\u00a0around\u00a0$1.72 trillion.<\/p>\n

The figure is staggering by any measure, but is also lost in its enormity. For example, the wealth of the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, sits at $75 billion – a figure which is only put into perspective when you realise South Africa’s richest man, Nicky Oppenheimer’s $6.6 billion fortune\u00a0is 11 times smaller.<\/p>\n

To put Oppenheimer’s wealth into perspective – it would take the average South African 434,000 years to build the same fortune. South Africans earning the average minimum wage would have to work 2.8 million years to achieve the same result.<\/p>\n

Read:\u00a0How much money the average person in South Africa gets paid<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

So ridiculous is billionaire wealth, that with a mere 6% return on\u00a0Gates’ wealth he would match the\u00a0weekly South African wage (around R4,370) in a matter of seconds (under 3 seconds, at current exchange rates).<\/p>\n

Using data from Expertmarket.co.uk, as well as local data from Stats SA and information from the International Labour Organization and OECD, we take a look at how long it would take for minimum wage and average wage earners to match the wealth of the richest person in their country.<\/p>\n

The wages below represent the average and minimum hourly wages in each of the countries listed, based on a 40 hour work week (expressed in USD).<\/p>\n

How long it would take a minimum wage<\/strong> earner to become their country’s richest person:<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Country<\/th>\nRichest person<\/th>\nWealth (Forbes 2016)<\/th>\nMinimum hourly wage<\/th>\nYears needed to work<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Australia<\/td>\nGina Rinehart<\/td>\n$8.8 billion<\/td>\n$15.58<\/td>\n271 551<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UK<\/td>\nHinduja family<\/td>\n$14.5\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$11.85<\/td>\n588 283<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Japan<\/td>\nTadashi Yanai<\/td>\n$14.6\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$6.54<\/td>\n1 073 277<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Germany<\/td>\nBeate Heister<\/td>\n$25.9\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$11.28<\/td>\n1 103 894<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Canada<\/td>\nDavid Thomson<\/td>\n$23.8\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$9.45<\/td>\n1 210 826<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
France<\/td>\nLiliane Bettencourt<\/td>\n$36.1\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$12.83<\/td>\n1 352 749<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
South Africa<\/strong><\/td>\nNicky Oppenheimer<\/strong><\/td>\n$6.6\u00a0billion<\/strong><\/td>\n$1.14<\/strong><\/td>\n2 783 401<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
USA<\/td>\nBill Gates<\/td>\n$75\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$7.25<\/td>\n4 973 475<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brazil<\/td>\nJorge Paulo Lemann<\/td>\n$27.8\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$2.12<\/td>\n6 304 427<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Russia<\/td>\nLeonid Mikhelson<\/td>\n$14.4\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$0.93<\/td>\n7 444 169<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nigeria<\/td>\nAliko Dangote<\/td>\n$15.4\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$0.65<\/td>\n11 390 533<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
China<\/td>\nWang Jianlin<\/td>\n$28.7\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$0.80<\/td>\n17 247 596<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
India<\/td>\nMukesh Ambani<\/td>\n$19.3\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$0.31<\/td>\n29 931 762<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mexico<\/td>\nCarlos Slim Helu<\/td>\n$50\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$0.69<\/td>\n34 838 350<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

How long it would take an average wage<\/strong> earner to become their country’s richest person:<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Country<\/th>\nRichest person<\/th>\nWealth (Forbes 2016)<\/th>\nAverage\u00a0hourly wage<\/th>\nYears needed to work<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Australia<\/td>\nGina Rinehart<\/td>\n$8.8 billion<\/td>\n$26.74<\/td>\n158 219<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UK<\/td>\nHinduja family<\/td>\n$14.5\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$19.75<\/td>\n352 970<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Japan<\/td>\nTadashi Yanai<\/td>\n$14.6\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$17.97<\/td>\n390 608<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
South Africa<\/strong><\/td>\nNicky Oppenheimer<\/strong><\/td>\n$6.6\u00a0billion<\/strong><\/td>\n$7.31<\/strong><\/td>\n434 073<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Canada<\/td>\nDavid Thomson<\/td>\n$23.8\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$24.99<\/td>\n457 875<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Germany<\/td>\nBeate Heister<\/td>\n$25.9\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$25.46<\/td>\n489 078<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
France<\/td>\nLiliane Bettencourt<\/td>\n$36.1\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$21.19<\/td>\n819 055<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
USA<\/td>\nBill Gates<\/td>\n$75\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$25.08<\/td>\n1 437 707<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Russia<\/td>\nLeonid Mikhelson<\/td>\n$14.4\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$3.43<\/td>\n2 018 390<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
China<\/td>\nWang Jianlin<\/td>\n$28.7\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$4.50<\/td>\n3 066 239<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mexico<\/td>\nCarlos Slim Helu<\/td>\n$50\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$6.67<\/td>\n3 603 967<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nigeria<\/td>\nAliko Dangote<\/td>\n$15.4\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$1.59<\/td>\n4 656 507<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brazil<\/td>\nJorge Paulo Lemann<\/td>\n$27.8\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$2.83<\/td>\n4 722 751<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
India<\/td>\nMukesh Ambani<\/td>\n$19.3\u00a0billion<\/td>\n$0.40<\/td>\n23 197 115<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

More on wealth<\/h3>\n

9 facts about the world\u2019s super rich<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

How the super rich are waging war on the poor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What the average CEO and executive earns in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The real minimum wage in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it possible for the average worker to match a billionaire’s wealth? Never in a million years. Literally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":112217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[26,7275],"class_list":["post-123549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-headline","tag-wealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123549"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123555,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123549\/revisions\/123555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}