minimum wage

[Tero]

[Rum]

While the minimum wage has lifted the income of many of the least well off it has also created a 'race to the bottom' with many employers assuming that they will pay all new employees that sort of wage. Catering and food industry workers as well as retail here have suffered badly here as a result.

[pErvinalia]

Australia - MARXISM CENTRAL!!1

[Rum]

The actual figures probably say as much about the cost of living in the countries as the relative levels of the wage.

[Hermit]

The actual figures probably say as much about the cost of living in the countries as the relative levels of the wage.

Not quite. The cost of living in the US is not 46% of that in Australia, nor is Japan's cost of living 58%.

[Rum]

'Says as much' I wrote. The figures are not comparing like with like.

[Hermit]

'Says as much' I wrote. The figures are not comparing like with like.

So we agree that the net effect is that Australians on the minimum wage are better off than Japanese and US citizens on theirs?

[Rum]

I ave no real idea, but I have heard anecdotally for example that the cost of living in Australia is higher, comparatively, than here in the UK. I concluded therefore that the figures don't take that into account.

[mistermack]

Isn't it highly likely that the cost of living in Australia is high BECAUSE the minimum wage is so high?

Not that I'm against a minimum wage. But in Australia, it seems to be partly self-defeating.

[Tero]

Cost of living depends on food, consumer goods, energy and housing. If land is scarce and food is imported, you get the Japan situation.

[mistermack]

Cost of living depends on food, consumer goods, energy and housing. If land is scarce and food is imported, you get the Japan situation.

Yeh, but all of those things are affected by wages. The minimum wage affects all of the lower wage bands, as skilled people expect more than the minimum wage.

You can end up in an inflationary cycle, where wages force up the cost of living, and the cost of living forces up wages, especially if the minimum wage is linked to the cost of living index.

[Rum]

The opposite has happened here I would say - I know this from direct experience as my daughter, who is a student, takes jobs during the holidays. Employers looking for low skill people simply assume they can get away with paying the minimum - and do.

[PsychoSerenity]

Yeah well minimum wages are a good start but really you need some "appropriate wage" regulations e.g. tying those at the top to those at the bottom. And we also need a better method of distribution for the wealth created from ownership. A land value tax and a financial transactions tax could fund a basic citizen's income for everyone.

[mistermack]

The opposite has happened here I would say - I know this from direct experience as my daughter, who is a student, takes jobs during the holidays. Employers looking for low skill people simply assume they can get away with paying the minimum - and do.

Yeh, but the difference is that in Britain, employers always have a steady supply of immigrant labour, willing to work for the minimum wage, and undercutting people like your daughter.
Immigrants can save the money and take it home and live well on it, or send it home to the family.
Brits have to spend it in Britain, where it doesn't go far.

Australia has an easier job keeping illegals out, and works harder at it. So the employers aren't so spoiled for choice.

[MrJonno]

Anyone got the figures of minimum wage as a percentage of median or mean wage, that would be more interesting to be honest