This got way longer than expected but the tldr is: foreign exchange is super complex and depends on a lot of factors which don’t matter to you as money user. I tried to give a few examples below. Plus: You’re mixing up two very different concepts: Fiat evaluation and purchasing power. First, money; “More worth” is a natural instinct but doesn’t reflect how the money market works: it’s a question of how much of that money is in circulation as well for example: 1107650 CHF Million 19396,90 USD Billion (Source tradingeconomics.com ). So while it’s the CHF is slightly over value when compared one to one the picture is different when you look at total money available. Then you look at production capacity, glue creation and supply and demand for those currencies. All of this will flow into the price. The minimum wage discussion is a completely different one: here you need to compare minimum wage to the purchasing power of the area you are looking at and take into consideration how the tax and financial situation changes to be able to compare it. There’s for example concept called big Mac index which is a crude way of showing the difference: how much does MacDonald’s charge for their bullshit? They are everywhere and quite good at finding a acceptable local price. If you want to dive deeper a key word to look for is the Gini Index with which the wealth distribution is quantified. I’m not good enough to explain it well though. Now for the colors: design of money is the job of the nations (or unions) main bank to decide usually. The US seem to have the creativity of a washed down rock while others are more creative. The Euro money for example is designed with guardrails by each member country but color, size and form are fixed and optimized to be easily recognized even with various visual impediments, which I personally really like.