The surprising Mass. city where a Big Mac Meal takes over 50% of hourly wage (2025)

The price of McDonald’s signature hamburger varies across the United States, but in Massachusetts, it costs the most on average, according to a recent study.

CashNetUSA collected prices from three McDonald’s restaurants near the center of the three most populated cities in each state and the District of Columbia and calculated the average cost of a Big Mac across the restaurants in each state and city.

In Massachusetts’ case, CashNetUSA would have looked at McDonald’s in Boston, Worcester and Springfield.

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In its findings, CashNetUSA said that Massachusetts had the highest average price for an individual Big Mac at $6.72 — a 30.5% difference between the lowest average price of $4.67 in Texas.

The other New England states also had somewhat similar Big Mac prices, according to CashNetUSA’s analysis, with Maine at $6.41 for the burger on average, New Hampshire at $6.50, Vermont at $6.46, Rhode Island at $6.35 and Connecticut, the lowest of the group, at $5.90.

However, despite having the highest price for the individual Big Mac, CashNetUSA found that the Bay State actually was the third “most affordable” for McDonald’s customers purchasing a Big Mac meal thanks to local purchasing power.

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“A large Big Mac meal costs an average of $11.92, which is 40.9% of the state’s average hourly wage,” CashNetUSA said.

Comparatively, Arkansas had the worst affordability in this metric at 55.1% of the median hourly wage for a large Big Mac meal.

CashNetUSA said it sourced the median hourly wage for all the surveyed states and metro areas based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data and mapped its 130 focus cities to their respective metro areas.

To determine affordability, CashNetUSA calculated the price of a large Big Mac meal in every state and major city as a percentage of the median hourly wage in each location.

Nevertheless, the site pointed out that the average price of a Big Mac in Springfield rises above the state average at $6.96 per burger, whereas Boston falls right on the average at $6.72.

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Additionally, CashNetUSA found Springfield to be the second “least affordable” city for a Big Mac meal based on a percentage of the median hourly wage at 52.4%, behind only Tucson, Arizona.

Conversely, Boston was among the “most affordable” for a large Big Mac meal as a percentage of the median hourly wage at only 37.9%.

To see CashNetUSA’s full methodology and findings nationwide, visit its website.