Your key to designing accurate assignee compensation packages
Mercer’s Cost of Living information provides all the key elements you need to calculate COLAs as well as the supporting information required so that international assignees understand and accept the results.
Reliable: Our unique international basket of goods and services reflects realistic spending habits established through years of extensive international assignees research and updated at least biannually.
Flexible: Choose the methodology that best adapts to your unique mobility program needs and allows you to determine competitive purchasing power for all your employees, wherever they’re moving from.
User-friendly: Access your data via the modern interface of our Cost of Living Calculator 2.0 for easier and faster COLA estimates and calculations right at your fingertips.
The benefit of two approaches
Choose the methodology that works for you
Multinational approach
The Multinational approach to calculating cost of living differentials is based on a blended international spending pattern. The methodology assumes a convergence of spending patterns among expatriates from many different nationalities. With weighting of goods and services the same for all locations, this approach compares prices of similar brands from similar retail outlets in both the home city and host city. Mercer’s Cost of Living Reports provide differentials for more than 400 cities.
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Nationality-specific approach
The Nationality-specific approach to cost of living develops indices and differentials based on the unique spending patterns in assignees’ home locations. Using different weights for each home country or market, it ensures that expatriates can maintain their expenditure patterns in their host locations. This compares prices in the home country/market from a local-national perspective with prices in the host city from an expatriate perspective. Mercer uses the nationality-specific approach to provide cost-of-living data for more than 400 host and 190 home locations.
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Learn more about our survey methodologies and see how employers leverage the data to design efficient and equitable allowances for international assignees in our webinar explaining the recent Cost of Living and Utilities data updates.