Study reveals price of dry cleaning around the world, and calculates the contribution this service adds to the global economy
- Oslo, Norway is the most expensive city to dry clean a suit, at $52.03, over 31% more expensive than the worldwide average, while Jakarta, Indonesia is the least expensive city for the same service, at $2.20.
- Russians are the biggest contributors to the dry cleaning economy, spending $3,265,888,189 per year on dry cleaning suits.
- New Delhi, India ranks #93 in the index, costing $3.86 to dry clean a single suit.
London, United Kingdom, 09/05/2018 – Online dry cleaning service, Zipjet, has released a study revealing the cost of dry cleaning a suit in 100 countries around the world. As necessary attire for many, Zipjet wanted to discover how suit-related services themselves contribute to worldwide trade. The study aims to establish not only how the cost of this service varies from nation to nation, but also how much the dry cleaning industry contributes to the economy as a whole. In addition, as an indicator of affordability, the study establishes the number of hours an individual is required to work while earning minimum wage to afford the service.
The study began by hand-picking 100 cities around the world, focusing on capital cities, business centres and financial districts. To source the cost of dry cleaning a suit, Zipjet looked at the average price of cleaning 2 and 3-piece suits in each location, as both a package deal and as separate jacket and trousers. Once this figure was determined, the deviation from the average could be calculated, which reveals how much more or less expensive the service is in comparison to all of the other cities in the study. The final index is ranked highest to lowest, based on the cost of dry cleaning a single suit.
In an effort to give the data some human perspective, the number of hours an individual on minimum wage must work to dry clean one suit was calculated. This data also establishes the overall affordability of the service in each city, and gives an indication of standard of living. Finally, to establish how much capital dry cleaning adds to the economy, the amount that each country spends on dry cleaning suits per year was calculated. This was determined by multiplying the yearly cost of dry cleaning with the total number of professionals who typically wear suits such as bankers, lawyers, insurance brokers, governmental workers and teaching staff, to give an indication of the total national cost.
“For traditionally business-oriented cities, such as Oslo, Helsinki and Zurich, our study shows that citizens are paying between 13-30% more to dry clean their suits than the rest of the world. Although you could consider this a ‘suit tax’, our data also shows that as salaries are higher in these nations, it would only take around 1 – 3 hours of working at minimum wage to afford such a service in these cities.” says Founder and Managing Director of Zipjet, Florian Färber. “We hope therefore that this index might serve as a useful tool for young professionals searching for a lucrative yet affordable new city to call home. Geneva and Copenhagen, for instance, are great examples of how the index acts as a useful indicator of overall affordability, as the data illustrates that despite high dry cleaning costs, the cities also offer higher wages.”
The table below reveals the results for New Delhi, India:
| Results for New Delhi, India, ranking #93 | |||
| Cost of Dry Cleaning Suit ($) | % Deviation from Average Worldwide | Hours at Minimum Wage to Afford Dry Cleaning | Total Nationwide Annual Spend on Dry Cleaning ($) |
| 3.86 | -7.99 | 3.4 | 753,191,781 |
Please find the full data for all 100 cities here: https://www.zipjet.co.uk/2018-global-dry-cleaning-index#USD
“This index highlighted some interesting case studies where vast competition has led to lower than usual prices for dry cleaning. Take Milan for instance, where it costs only $7.12 to dry clean a suit, almost half the price of Madrid where it costs $12.25, despite both cities having a reputation for their smart, suit-wearing fashion sense.” comments Founder and Managing Director of Zipjet, Florian Färber. “On the other side, despite a huge proportion of individuals wearing suits in Russia, their dry cleaning costs are some of the highest in the study, and the most unaffordable in relation to minimum wage. This hints that perhaps suit-wearing in Russia comes with a certain social prestige which keeps the prices high, whereas suits are a way of daily life in Italy and therefore come at a more reasonable cost to clean.”
About Zipjet: Zipjet is Europe’s leading on-demand laundry & dry cleaning service. Founded by Florian Färber and Lorenzo Franzi in London in 2014, the company has since expanded to Berlin (2015) and Paris (2016). Zipjet’s mission is simple: to revolutionize the way laundry is done, liberating consumer tedium and enabling customers to unlock new time. With high quality cleaning and turnaround in as little as 24 hours, Zipjet promises to take the hassle out of laundry. Simple.
Methodology
The study began by determining a final list of 100 global cities, focusing on capitals, business districts and financial centres. The average cost of dry cleaning a suit in each of these locations was then calculated, in addition to how many hours an individual earning minimum wage must work to afford the service. To establish the overall contribution that dry cleaning adds to the global economy, the total annual capital spent on the service was then calculated for each country.
Sources:
Cost of Dry Cleaning Suit: To calculate the cost of dry cleaning a suit, prices were sourced from on average 10 stores in each city. Final prices are an average between the cost of a 2-piece and a 3-piece suit where applicable, in addition to the average between dry cleaning a suit as a package and as separate jacket and trousers. Additionally, prices are averaged between the costs for men and women. Source: Google, Baidu. Google Finance was used as a currency converter when sourcing dry cleaning prices. All prices were converted to USD before being converted to EUR, with the exchange rate fixed at 19/03/2018 23:58:00.
% Deviation from Average Worldwide: This figure calculates the average of all dry cleaning costs in the index, and then shows the amount by which each city’s prices are above or below the average cost, expressed as a percentage. A positive percentage indicates that a city is more expensive than the average, while a negative percentage indicates that a city is less expensive than the average.
Hours at Minimum Wage to Afford Dry Cleaning:
- Hours to work at minimum wage to afford the dry cleaning of one suit (H) = Cost of dry cleaning a suit (C) / Minimum wage per hour (Wh), so H = C/Wh.
- Minimum wage per hour (Wh) was calculated based on how many hours an employee must work in a month (Hm) and the minimum wage (Mw), therefore Wh = Mw/ Hm. Hm is calculated based on hours an employee must work in a week (Hw). Therefore, Hm = Hw*52/12 (based on 52 weeks and 12 months in a year).
- Majority of minimum wage data sourced at country level, but in some cases (USA, India, China, and Russia), the data was collected at a state/province level. Note: not all countries included in the index have an official minimum wage, so the average salary in the cleaning service sector was utilised instead. Source: Eurostat, Statista, local government data, national statistic department, labour unions.
Total Nationwide Annual Spend on Dry Cleaning:
- Total expenditure on dry cleaning suits (M) = Total number of Bank/Insurance workers + Lawyers + Teaching staff + Government workers, in thousands (N) x 1000 x Price of dry cleaning a suit (P) x Frequency that people using dry cleaning services per year (F). In millions, this equation would be equal to M = NxPxFx1.000/1.000.000 =NxPxF/1.000.
- For the purpose of the study, the number of professionals in typically suit-wearing industries was used. This includes number of bank/insurance workers, lawyers, government workers, and teaching staff. Source: United Nations, ILO, Eurostat, local statistical departments. Please get in contact if you wish to see a breakdown of the sources for this factor.
- Based on online surveys, for the purpose of this factor in the study, we assume that an individual dry cleans one suit 6 times per year.
- Population country and city, source: United Nations, Eurostat and CIA Factbook. When data was from available from these sources, local census data or national statistics were substituted.