The Briefing Room

General Category => World News => Topic started by: DCPatriot on May 18, 2014, 01:19:25 pm

Title: Switzerland Votes on World's Highest Minimum Wage
Post by: DCPatriot on May 18, 2014, 01:19:25 pm
Switzerland Votes on World's Highest Minimum Wage

Switzerland's citizens voted Sunday on whether to create the world's highest minimum wage of 22 Swiss francs ($24.70) an hour.

If passed, the Swiss would more than double the existing highest minimum wages in force elsewhere in Europe. Results are expected later Sunday.

Trade unions sponsored the wage proposal as way of fighting poverty in a country that, by some measures, features some of the world's highest prices. But opinion polls indicated that most voters side with government and business leaders, who have argued it would cost jobs and erode economic competitiveness.

Switzerland currently has no minimum wage, but the median hourly wage is about 33 francs ($37) an hour.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/switzerland-votes-worlds-highest-minimum-wage-n108306 (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/switzerland-votes-worlds-highest-minimum-wage-n108306)

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Title: Re: Switzerland Votes on World's Highest Minimum Wage
Post by: DCPatriot on May 18, 2014, 01:21:12 pm
What good does gloating over a minimum wage of $25.00 per hour, when a loaf of bread is $7.00?
Title: Re: Switzerland Votes on World's Highest Minimum Wage
Post by: alicewonders on May 18, 2014, 01:27:39 pm
No one can afford to live in Switzerland as it is. 

Title: Re: Switzerland Votes on World's Highest Minimum Wage
Post by: Bigun on May 18, 2014, 01:30:27 pm
What good does gloating over a minimum wage of $25.00 per hour, when a loaf of bread is $7.00?

Excellent question!!!

Title: Re: Switzerland Votes on World's Highest Minimum Wage
Post by: Chieftain on May 18, 2014, 01:43:09 pm
No one can afford to live in Switzerland as it is.

Somehow the Swiss still do.  I don't know, and likely don't want to know, what the tax rate in Switzerland is but I can probably guess. 

This might be why the best job a young Swiss guy can get is a job at the Vatican as one of the Swiss Guards.  At least it gets them out of Switzerland.....

Title: Re: Switzerland Votes on World's Highest Minimum Wage
Post by: alicewonders on May 18, 2014, 01:44:53 pm
Have you noticed that the more money people make - the more things cost?  In the good old days, my father supported the family while my mother stayed home to raise the kids and run the household.  We lived in a blue collar neighborhood and for a time only had one car, one television, and one window air conditioner - but we lived the good life!

Then "feminists" started burning their bras and telling other women they were being oppressed and couldn't be completely "fulfilled" until they had a career outside the home.  Mothers were embarrassed to say that they didn't work outside of the home.  That was the start of "latch-key" kids, growing divorce rates and the decline of public education.  Prices of homes, food, clothing and everything else went up so much that it REQUIRED two incomes just to keep up with the Joneses. 

We didn't know how good we had it back then. 

Title: Re: Switzerland Votes on World's Highest Minimum Wage
Post by: DCPatriot on May 18, 2014, 01:51:21 pm
Since reported that the vote failed to pass.   

Probably kept 'that' loaf of bread from going to $8.00....
Title: Re: Switzerland Votes on World's Highest Minimum Wage
Post by: Bigun on May 18, 2014, 01:57:39 pm
Somehow the Swiss still do.  I don't know, and likely don't want to know, what the tax rate in Switzerland is but I can probably guess. 

This might be why the best job a young Swiss guy can get is a job at the Vatican as one of the Swiss Guards.  At least it gets them out of Switzerland.....

They are smart enough to keep the gooberment from meddling in the marketplace to much and thus the market adapts quickly.  The Swiss don't do a heck of a lot of exporting for obvious reasons.


Year   Gross Domestic Product   US Dollar Exchange
1980   184,080   1.67 Francs
1985   244,421   2.43 Francs
1990   330,925   1.38 Francs
1995   373,599   1.18 Francs
2000   422,063   1.68 Francs
2005   463,799   1.24 Francs
2006   490,545   1.25 Francs
2007   521,068   1.20 Francs
2008   547,196   1.08 Francs
2009   535,282   1.09 Francs
2010   546,245   1.04 Francs
2011   659.3   0.75 Francs
2012   632.2   ...
Title: Re: Switzerland Votes on World's Highest Minimum Wage
Post by: ABX on May 18, 2014, 02:38:31 pm
No one can afford to live in Switzerland as it is.

The cost of living is through the roof in Switzerland- an entire country on par with the COL of San Francisco or London. I guess they are not seeing the correlation.
Geneva for example; http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/geneva?currency=USD

They do a lot of things right, and due to their size, they have managed to keep this from destroying their economy, but they aren't exactly a good example for what works on the inflation front.

Title: Re: Switzerland Votes on World's Highest Minimum Wage
Post by: ABX on May 18, 2014, 02:47:03 pm
Since reported that the vote failed to pass.   

Probably kept 'that' loaf of bread from going to $8.00....

Or a 900sqft apartment from shooting up to $6K per month (currently over $4K)