Thread: Minimum Wages Around the World

Njtom posted this graph in another thread, here's an article that goes with it:


-Minimum wage advocates love to point to Australia's $16.88 an hour minimum as evidence that a very high wage floor needn't stifle a country's growth. After all, Australia hasn't had a recession in 20 years. But Australia is hardly an outlier. Most developed countries have a higher minimum wage than we do, as this chart from Business Insider's Matthew Boesler — using data from the ConvergEx Group — shows:




http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/w...lias-is-16-88/

I had no Australia's minimum wage was so high...but look what happens after you deduct taxes:

Originally Posted by krystian

Njtom posted this graph in another thread, here's an article that goes with it:


-Minimum wage advocates love to point to Australia's $16.88 an hour minimum as evidence that a very high wage floor needn't stifle a country's growth. After all, Australia hasn't had a recession in 20 years. But Australia is hardly an outlier. Most developed countries have a higher minimum wage than we do, as this chart from Business Insider's Matthew Boesler — using data from the ConvergEx Group — shows:




http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/w...lias-is-16-88/

The chart doesn't show that because it doesn't include all the developed countries that do not have a set minimum wage, meaning it is theoretically $0.

We pay too much tax and our cost of living is high

I'm guessing that the after-tax ones don't take into account sales tax?

UK VAT is 20%. I think you guys have very low sales taxes by comparison? That could appear to skew the results. I'm not sure whether it's similar in Australia? I suppose you really need to compare "Cost of Living" too.

I think they announced plans to raise the minimum wage even higher at the last budget :-/ Frankly I'm not sure why they're obsessed with raising it. I don't think it's the right answer.

Originally Posted by Monkfish

I'm guessing that the after-tax ones don't take into account sales tax?

UK VAT is 20%. I think you guys have very low sales taxes by comparison? That could appear to skew the results. I'm not sure whether it's similar in Australia? I suppose you really need to compare "Cost of Living" too.

We'd have to attempt to take into account that tax money is used for services that the tax payer then doesn't have to pay for. It's not a one way drain. Exchange rates may affect the picture more, purchasing power may be very different to nominal salaries due to inflated or deflated exchange rates between currencies.
For instance, the Norwegian krone used to be extremely strong but now it is much lower due to falling oil prices and Norwegian salaries don't seem that extreme any longer. Our purchasing power didn't change though.

Originally Posted by krystian

I had no Australia's minimum wage was so high...but look what happens after you deduct taxes:

That chart takes into account inflated exchange rates and that is mostly what produces the difference from the first chart.

Originally Posted by Cardinal TT

We pay too much tax and our cost of living is high...

Originally Posted by Monkfish

UK VAT is 20%...

Originally Posted by Colonel

...the Norwegian krone used to be extremely strong but now it is much lower...

You're all in different countries, how much do you guys pay for say a gallon of milk? Its averaging about $1.99 right now in the US.

Originally Posted by krystian

You're all in different countries, how much do you guys pay for say a gallon of milk? Its averaging about $1.99 right now in the US.

A gallon .......hahaha hohoho....we have moved to metric not stuck on imperial measure

Now this is American gallon which would equate to 3.785 liters.

$1.99 gallon equates to 0.52 cents liter....which is cheap cheap cheap

We pay a minimum of $1 litre for cheapest milk but most is higher