THAT’S A BIG $MACK

Inflation hits McD’s

It’s extra cheese.

The average price for a McDonald’s Big Mac in the US is now estimated at $5.15, or nearly 22% more since the pre-pandemic era, a new study shows.

The iconic burger’s price varies from state to state, with a Big Mac in Hawaii fetching the most — a whopping $5.31, according to CashNetUSA.

New York is the next most expensive state to buy the burger, at $5.23, followed by New Jersey at $5.19 and California at $5.11. Out of the more than 13,000 McDonald’s in the US, eateries in Mississippi were found to have the cheapest Big Macs, at $3.91. After Mississippi, the best bang for your buck can be found in Arkansas, with the Big Mac available for $3.95, while Alabama, Missouri and South Dakota tied for the third-cheapest, at $3.99. Middle America states such as Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma all listed the Big Mac at $4.07.

The prices are a far cry from the 45 cents the Big Mac originally cost when it made its debut in 1967 in Pennsylvania.

The menu staple’s rising cost has been fueled by inflation, which remains stubbornly high in the US at 6%.

Since its creation over five decades ago, the Big Mac has been rolled out at more than 38,000 McDonald’s around the world — and has become an intriguing data point for economists along the way. The Big Mac Index, created in 1986 by The Economist, stands as a way to measure whether currencies around the world are at their “correct” level, using the price of a Big Mac in the US as a point of comparison.

While Americans may bemoan the rising cost of the iconic Big Mac, they still fare better than the prices overseas in Europe, where Switzerland and Liechtenstein price the burger at about $7.75.

The latest index shows the currencies in Switzerland, Uruguay, Norway, Sweden and Denmark overvalued over the US dollar.