Posted on 02/13/2013 11:42:21 AM PST by SeekAndFind
President Barack Obama proposed last night that the United States raise the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour.
While that may seem like a massive raise for low earners — the current minimum wage is $7.25 per hour — we learned that when accounting for the impact of inflation this would be far from the first time that the United States minimum wage exceeded $9.00 in 2012 dollars.
There's an even more comprehensive look at how the United States minimum wage stacks up, and that's by comparing it to other nations.
Take a look at how the minimum wage levels in member nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the economic club for rich countries:
stats.oecd.org and en.wikipedia.org
Among OECD nations, every single country that pays a higher minimum wage than the U.S. pays upwards of $9.00 U.S. dollars per hour.
Australia, the nation with the best minimum compensation on the list, has a minimum wage equivalent to $15.75 in U.S. dollars.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Make it a million dollars a year and we’ll all be RICH!!!!
A country with a minimum wage is what is called “fascist”. At least to a degree. It is also not free.
What’s the point, Walter? Should we raise it to $15 per hour too? Or $20 per hour? Is that going to solve our problems?
RE: Australia, the nation with the best minimum compensation on the list, has a minimum wage equivalent to $15.75 in U.S. dollars.
___________________________
John Stossel made this observation:
the Australian government raised minimum wage to A$15 an hour (about $15.30 USD). It’s more than double the federal minimum wage in the United States.
Statists say that Australia is proof that minimum wage laws help workers. They point to Australia’s 5.1% unemployment rate.
But statists ignore the details.
Most people who earn minimum wage are young, unskilled workers. How are they doing in Australia?
In June, Australia’s unemployment rate for workers age 15 to 19 was 16.5%.
Last December, 63% of all jobs lost were jobs for young, unskilled Australians.
It’s simple: when the price of something goes up, people buy less. So when the price of labor goes up, employers hire less.
When the Wall Street Journal reported the minimum wage increase in Australia, it called the law “a victory for unions.” But that seems strange because union workers normally make more than minimum wage.
But it is a victory for unions because union bosses know that raising the minimum wage reduces competition from unskilled labor. Union support for minimum wage laws is entirely self-serving.
The unseen consequences of minimum wage laws are the millions of poor, disadvantaged people who don’t have job opportunities. In the United States, it hurts poor people and inner-city minorities. In Australia, it hurts young workers.
Australia is an example of how minimum wage helps some groups, and hurts others. Even in a good economy, the young, inexperienced workers are left out.
Why do these boobs always try and compare us with other nations? I sure as hell don’t want to live in another Country with their systemic problems.
RE: Should we raise it to $15 per hour too? Or $20 per hour? Is that going to solve our problems?
If you really want to hurt the unskilled, inexperienced, and the entry level youth, and help the UNIONS, yes, by all means do it.
That happened in Australia, it will happen here also. The laws of supply and demand are universal.
I’d like to see the minimum wages plotted against the cost for a typical hamburger or beer in each country.
The minimum might be generous in scandinavia, but it still costs an hour’s wage to but a lunch. I recall $10 for a small glass of crappy beer at a crappy joint in Copenhagen, and $20 for rock bottom buffets. So, tripe the wage, and tripe the costs of living.
Aren’t public employee union wages indexed to the minimum wage?
The very idea that the government would establish a single rate that is applicable in NYC as well as rural Alabama reveals the idiocy of such an idea.
The core of support for a minimum wage is primarily the unions who seek to kill those non-unionized shops who are more competitive on the cost of labor.
Additionally, it is inflationary and ultimately hurts those at the bottom of the economic ladder.
Minimum wage should be a state issue.
Business Insider is Barry’s and the ‘RATS’ “business” rag. However, if this chart is correct, why aren’t those countries with a minimum wage higher than the U.S. being overrun with illegal aliens?
The following message was published many years ago, utilizing Professor Dr. Walter Williams' warning about the negative consequences of minimum wage laws on families and those who most need work experience and earnings. His words were true then, and he has repeated them on Stossel and in other venues more recently. That's the great thing about enduring principles: they don't change with time.
Dr. Williams understands and has been teaching, speaking, and writing about the tragic consequences of the so-called "progressive" policies which Democrats have inflicted upon Americans--all in the name of "helping" them.
Slavery to government is no better than slavery to individual masters. Yet, the "regressives" continue to buy power and influence by promoting policies that destroy opportunity, prosperity, and freedom for our own and future generations.
Apart from the standard “Business Insider” warnings...
This is hard to compare; it’s one element in a 4-5-6 variable equation and to me, the premise is goofy.
Without going thru each nation on that list, most of the Euro countries have pretty narly VAT taxes which raise the price of things considerably. These are generally in the range of 17% IIRC, and they can apply to many of the separate stages of processing for manufactured items. I am in no position to tell you what the price of a pair of jeans is in Luxembourg, but I can tell you that a beer in a bar in Denmark or Sweden or Norway is a solid $10, a pair of entirely average jeans is $75 or so, as is an entirely ordinary dress shirt.
Additionally, while higher university-level education and cattle-grade healthcare in those countries is free in most cases, income tax rates are astronomical compared to ours. Nor can I state without snide and denigrating implication what the intended purpose of flushing so much “public” money through governments’ hands taking it away in the form of taxes levied on everything but rebated in the form of higher wages (I was told that min wage in Norway was about $25 when I was there in 2005)
But my point is that examining one component of a multi-variable equation is less then useful. However, the MSM is less then useful and I have no doubt that a whole squadron of stenographers has been dispatched to blather about the righteousness of everything and anything 0bama wants to inflict upon us...and they are eager to comply with their marching orders.
Paul McCartney unemployed?
What was it here in the US?
I found a stat for 16-24 year olds that says the unemployment rate for that group was 17.1%. I don't know which way the number would move if we narrowed it down to 15-19 year olds.
It is why when you go into a grocery store in much of Europe you will see one or two checkers and very deep lines. ( incidentally much of Europe technically does not have a minimum wage but wages are set by... you guessed it...unions)
Also the same reason, you can go into the same McDonalds for a year or more in Europe and get the same cashier. No mobility in these crappy jobs because finding one is not so easy.
Also the same reason a value meal is $15 in most Euro cities.
What’s the unemployment picture like for the countries with a lower minimum wage than the US listed in the OP’s graph? If you’re argument is sound, i.e. higher minimum wage = higher unemployment, then youth unemployment should be better in those countries, yes?
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