this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2024
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$7.25? Woof. I made that back at a grocery store 20 years ago.
I'll take €1,969 and look out on the Mediterranean.
Some of those 7.25s will technically be even lower, that's the federal minimum that will apply to pretty much all jobs, but they still have it on the books that if they could, they'd fuck you over even harder. Georgia's for instance is 5.15 which can come up in some niche circumstances, and some don't even have a listed minimum
List of European countries by minimum wage
Don't forget cost of living. Monaco might not be the easiest city to find affordable housing.
It's notable that the countries with no legal minimum wage are also those with the highest wages. That's because these countries have replaced laws with collective agreements. This goes to show that united workers can create better results than politicians.
It's a really unfortunate effect of minimum wage. It turns into maximum wage, because employers can point at a minimum wage and say "hey I already pay you 0.01€ more than minimum, go back to work and be thankful", whereas union wages are based on constant negotiation and actual statistics of what is paid in the market.
I really don't want my wage to be determined on country-wide politics. In my opinion, it's much more logical to let each sector determine it for themselves. Especially in times like this where right wing parties are gaining influence due to immigration issues. Why would I have to take a pay cut, because a lot of old people are afraid of immigrants? It makes no sense. Issues like that make people vote against their own interest.
The best way to put a value on work is by letting the people in the sectors decide. Both sides of the table of course. But just not political.
(I do realize that union agreements are also political in that both employers and enployee unions are democratic, but at least it's confined to that topic and to that sector.)
I agree that legislative parliaments shouldn't determine minimum wages.
Minimum wages are a safeguard against certain forms of wage theft, IMO, because the biggest stick around acts as your compulsory union.
Voluntary unions should then collectively determine minimum wages in a separate body.
I do not agree that there should be sector-specific minimum wage alone as every human being has worth and thus their time as well. This does not exclude sector-specific negotiations.
Yes, one builds on top of the other. That's how it works ideally.
It is however easier to get workers to unite when there's no legal minimum to fall back on. Also, when the majority of workers are unionized, the legal minimum is irrelevant and only serves as a talking point against the actual negotiations.
Minimum wage makes sense in countries where unions can't get a foothold, but it's a double edged sword: It's keeping unions from establishing, because a lot of people will gladly leave their negotiations up to the politicians and not risking sticking their nose out.
Quite a lot of the things that people take for granted now started as union contracts. Paid holidays, working hours being less han 80h/week, maternity/paternity/family leave, sick leave/pay, paid breaks, paid pension etc.etc.
NONE of that happened due to political parties feeling a need to require employers to pay out more or secure the working class.. Never happened.
It might be elevated to law in some countries by now, but it always always started with unions demanding it and going to conflict over it.
Even when the conflicts failed, it made the premises for putting it into law. That is how working hours have decreased. Unions wanted it, didn't get it at first, but still got it second time around, when the notion hit the government workers, making it necessary to lift the idea into law to keep functioning.
Without unions, we'd still be shoveling coal into a furnace 80 hours a week, because that's what made financial sense for the business owners.