Quoracy.com

Image by WageIndicator - Paulien Osse via Flickr

List of minimum wages by country – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The above link’s content should provide most people with food for thought.

Compare the minimum wage in Holland or Luxembourg, just shy of 20 thousand dollars a year, with Burundi at less than 100 dollars per year – I don’t know why they even bother with minimum wage legislation, but presumably they need it which is harrowing even to dwell on.

Can it be that an unskilled person in Holland is really worth over 200 unskilled people in Burundi? Regardless of where they are, they are both unskilled.

There’s no easy answer to this one – if you increase the minimum wage then the investment in labour intensive jobs for lowly-skilled people just goes to a more competitive country, and more people starve.

Also of course, one dollar in Burundi will buy you a lot more than a dollar in Holland (especially in terms of unskilled services, should you require them, but also in terms of food, clothing and shelter).

In and of itself it’s not the most useful index of human development, but it certainly makes you think.

Related articles

• Lowering the Minimum Wage for Tipped Employees: Yes or No? (slog.thestranger.com)
• Raising The Minimum Wage: Who Does It Help? (npr.org)