Mercer's Quality of Living Reports

	Key Features & Benefits		Managing Quality-of-Living for Expatriates		ExpatMonitor		Related Products
	Purchasing Info		Global HRMonitor		Quality of Living Survey Highlights

Key Features and Benefits

Based on 39 factors within ten categories, Mercer’s Quality of Living Reports contain all the key elements you need to calculate hardship allowances for transfers to over 280 cities worldwide.

“Hardship allowance” refers to premium compensation paid to expatriates who experience – or should expect to experience – a significant deterioration in living conditions in their new host location.

Our reports are based on annual responses to a questionnaire developed by international Mercer professionals, working closely with major multinational companies and other experts in the field.

Tangible values for qualitative perceptions to establish an objective assessment of the quality of living for transfers to over 280 cities worldwide.
Carefully selected factors representing the criteria considered most relevant to international executives.
A detailed outline of how we establish quality of living differentials between cities.
A City-to-City Index Comparison that summarises the difference in the quality of living between any two cities.
The final quality of living index and access to the detailed breakdown of the categories that form the resulting index.
An online quality of living calculator allowing you to customise the QOL index to your specific needs.
A score report summarising the quality of living differences for each of the 39 factors.
Mercer’s recommended Quality of Living Allowance Grid that allows you to translate the quality of living index into percentage benefits and define competitive hardship allowances where applicable.

Find out more and get purchasing info

Managing Quality of Living for Expatriates

Defining Quality of Living
Mercer has designed an objective way of measuring quality of living for expatriates based on factors that people consider representative of quality of living. Once a year, Mercer conducts a quality of living study in over 380 cities worldwide based on detailed assessments and evaluations of 10 key categories and 39 criteria or factors, each having coherent weightings reflecting their relative importance... Read More

Mercer Cross-Bordering Capabilities in Helping Governments to Better Access the Quality of Living and People Perception

The objective is to highlight the particularity and specificity of a city/country through qualitative and quantitative analysis

Highlights from the Quality-of-Living Survey

European cities dominate the top of the ranking
Vienna scores highest for overall quality of living, Baghdad the lowest
Singapore ranks top for city infrastructure; London ranks eighth

Vienna has passed Zurich to take the top spot as the world’s city with the best quality of living, according to the Mercer 2009 Quality of Living Survey. Geneva retains its position in third place, while Vancouver and Auckland are now joint fourth in the rankings.

Overall, European cities continue to dominate the top locations in this year’s survey. In the UK, London ranks at 38, while Birmingham and Glasgow are jointly at 56. In the US, the highest ranking entry is Honolulu at position 29. Singapore (26) is the top-scoring Asian city followed by Tokyo at 35. Baghdad, ranking 215, remains at the bottom of the table.

The rankings are based on a point-scoring index, which sees Vienna score 108.6, and Baghdad 14.4. Cities are ranked against New York as the base city with an index score of 100. Mercer’s Quality of Living ranking covers 215 cities and is conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments.

Singapore is at the top of this index (score 109.1) followed by Munich in second place and Copenhagen in third. Japanese cities Tsukuba (4) and Yokohama (5) fill the next two slots, whilst Dusseldorf and Vancouver share sixth place. Baghdad ranks at the bottom of the table with a score of only 19.6.

Read more from the Press Release
28 April 2009

Global HRMonitor^®

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Global HRMonitor^®, Mercer’s web-based application, acts as a single source, supporting you in all aspects of managing your expatriate employees on a worldwide and/or regional basis. The reports and built-in calculators allow you to customise the data to your own specific needs and to obtain the best return on investment from your international assignments. Global HRMonitor^® tools support both traditional solutions, such as home country balance sheet calculations, as well as new solutions to intra-regional and third-country-national transfers.

Global HRMonitor^® helps you to:

make expatriate balance sheet calculations easily,
address expatriate cost-of-living issues,
compensate employees on short-term assignments,
set the quality of living/hardship allowance,
assess expatriate tax issues,
understand statutory benefit and employment conditions around the world,
familiarise yourself with your host countries,
compare expatriate packages with local salaries and benefits, and
review key economic indicators.

The Quality of Living Calculator, part of Global HRMonitor^®, assists you in determining the hardship allowance based on quality of living differentials between locations

View a short demo about the Quality-of-Living calculator

ExpatMonitor^® - Expatriate Compensation made easy

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Mercer’s new web-based application, ExpatMonitor^®, is an integrated Expatriate Compensation management tool to facilitate the management and the administration of International Assignment compensation policies, trends and costs. ExpatMonitor® is a web based tool capable of recording and managing expatriate related compensation information. The system will allow you to have quick assignment cost estimations derived from your policy and integrating data from various internal and external sources.

ExpatMonitor^® helps you to:

Facilitate the compensation calculation and update process
Ensure consistency and policy compliance
Track, analyse and report on expatriate compensation costs
Maintain up to date and transparent expatriate compensation data
Reduce administrative cost and effort (cycle time)

To learn more about ExpatMonitor^® contact Mrs Anne Rossier-Renaud.

Related Products

Mercer Passport
MercerPassport contains valuable reference information that will help expatriates learn what it’s really like to live in another country. It provides the whole family with a clear understanding of how to appreciate and adapt to life in a new location, as well as essential practical guidance about moving abroad and acclimating to a new home.

MercerPassport gives you access to:

The world’s premier country guides, covering 92 major countries
Quality-of-living information covering up to 285 cities across the globe
The Work Permit portal, providing advice and sourcing work permits for accompanying spouses or partners
Mercer’s CostAdvisor, a tool that compares the price of everyday items
Exclusive news and articles by experts in the field

Cost-of-Living Information Services
To encourage mobility and to manage your international assignment costs, you need precise information to calculate fair, consistent expatriate compensation packages. Based on over 200 goods and services, our semi-annual surveys are conducted by professional researchers simultaneously in each of the 250 locations we cover. Carefully chosen vendors reflect only those outlets where your expatriates can buy goods and services of international quality.

Key benefits and features include:

A unique international basket of goods and services
Three distinct cost-of-living (COL) indices for different expatriate shoppers
An online Cost-of-Living Index Calculator that allows you to customise the COL index to your specific needs
Reasonable, realistic indices
Full price list and survey details
Current information, with locations extensively surveyed twice a year by professional researchers
More frequent updates for markets in flux
Special cities surveyed upon request
A methodology that lets you determine competitive purchasing power for all your employees

International Assignments Survey
Find out how leading multinational companies worldwide address the expatriate management issues you are facing. Transferring employees abroad, for short-term, long-term or permanent assignments, is more challenging than ever before. Aligning your company’s practices and policies with the best practices in the market place is critical to the success of your international assignment program.

Consider these questions:

What are the latest trends in international assignment policies in Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas?
How successful are mobility premiums and hardship allowances in encouraging international transfers?
Do companies still provide free housing?
Do many companies apply a negative cost-of-living index?
What are the most effective spouse support policies?

Guide to Expatriate Housing Costs and Practices
Accommodation information across 50 cities to aid your expatriate housing decisions
Housing remains one of the most sensitive issues in the expatriate package negotiation process, primarily because of its cost but also because of its significant impact on the assignee and family. Mercer's expatriate accommodation costs information can help you make better-informed expatriate housing decisions.