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Tag: living wage

  • Switzerland $25 Minimum Wage Voted Against

    Switzerland voted Sunday to reject a measure called the Decent Salary Initiative, that would establish a minimum wage of $4,515 per month in that country, with 76.3% of voters opposed to the idea.

    The proposed monthly minimum wage equates to roughly $25 per hour, which would be the highest in the world. Proponents called the wage hike necessary, while opponents felt that it would seriously damage the Swiss economy.

    Hans-Ulrich Bigler, director of the Swiss trades association, commented that “It is a clear vote by the people, a vote of trust in the economy.” The Decent Salary Initiative would benefit roughly 300,000 Swiss workers, with the vast majority being immigrants working in agriculture, housekeeping and catering jobs.

    Swiss voters turn out:

    At present, 90% of Swiss workers already earn more than the proposed $25 per hour, with the average wage being roughly $37 an hour, though union leaders in the country of 8 million will continue to push for higher wage rates for unskilled laborers, which are still some of the highest paid in the world. Though the average household income in Switzerland is about $6,800 per month (as compared to $4,300 in the United States), that country likewise features some of the highest prices for goods and services worldwide.

    The Swiss Business Federation president Heinz Karrer commented that the landslide result in the poll revealed that “the initiative hurts low-paid workers in particular.” Voters realized that forcing wage hikes could lead to job cuts, and Switzerland’s 3.2% unemployment rate is among the lowest globally.

    Luisa Almeida, an immigrant from Portugal who works in Switzerland as a housekeeper commented, “If my employer had to pay me more money, he wouldn’t be able to keep me on and I’d lose the job.”

    In April a minimum wage referendum was on the table in the United States Senate. Democrats had pushed for a $10.10 hourly minimum, which was promptly shut down by the GOP.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Gap Hourly Wage Raise In Store For US Employees

    Gap is a pretty hip and progressive retailer, and perhaps that is what makes it so popular with young people and new families. The company is known for doing good via charities and outreach programs, the most recent example being the P.A.C.E. program, which aims to bring education, training, and recognition to female garment workers. Gap has no problem with using its retail power for progressive good, and has opted to do so once more, this time with a focus on the US.

    Recent arguments and debates about the minimum wage in the United States have gained massive visibility, with examples ranging from president Obama’s proposed legislation to raise the minimum wage to worker’s demonstrations and strikes in demand for a “living wage.” Gap has decided to stake its own claim in the midst of this discussion, by promising to raise the minimum wage for its workers to $9 an hour in 2014, and $10 an hour by 2015.

    Gap announced its intentions through both its official Twitter and Facebook, using the tagline and “mantra of their founder,” “Do more than sell clothes.”

    Post by Gap.

    The move is a bold one that definitely makes a statement, and has garnered a lot of attention across social media. Most notably, the White House official Twitter tweeted a quote from President Obama that congratulated Gap for raising the wages for its employees, which the Gap Twitter graciously responded to.

    This is an important milestone in the fight for a living wage for workers, and is hopefully the first of many instances of large retailers taking steps to provide a substantial, appropriate income for its workers.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons.

  • Minimum Wage Debate Strikes a Date

    Minimum Wage Debate Strikes a Date

    August 29 is the day you may want to pack a lunch.  Fast food workers are joining the social media stampede calling for a nationwide strike on August 29, four days before Labor Day.  Demands are for an hourly wage of $15 and, “the right to form a union without retaliation,” posts organizer Low Pay Is Not Ok.  The group also sponsors a petition on their site along with a robust Facebook and Twitter campaign.

    Employee walkouts over the last few months were spurred by these demands for a living wage—proposed to be $15 an hour—over the standard fast food salary based on the US minimum wage—$7.25 an hour.  This activity in turn, is cooking up a spectrum of responses across the political sphere.

    CEO’s are balancing on either side of the minimum wage solution. Along with select other CEO’s, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has landed in favor of minimum wage hikes, though not necessarily to $15/hour. Denny’s CEO John Miller explains an industry problem reporting higher salaries among employees when industry turnover rates are so high. “The benefit of this industry is we’re one of the largest employers of those who don’t have a good start otherwise,” Miller says during a Breakout interview last month.

    President Barack Obama has made increasing the minimum wage a long-standing administration goal that has failed to gain traction in Congress.

    A 9 August Bureau of Labor Statistics Study adds the cost of benefits into the combo meal. The study compares compensation costs across 33 countries, placing the United States 12th behind Sweden, Brazil, and Estonia in total compensation (wages and employer expenditures such as health insurance).

    The debate promises to remain as heated as fast food wars.

  • New Study: A Pricier Burger could mean a Living Wage

    The recent striking by fast food workers in many large cities has prompted an undergraduate student to publish a controversial study about McDonald’s food prices.

    The question has recently been repeatedly asked (particularly in the wake of a distressing financial advice packet given out to McDonald’s employees) if the company’s food would continue to be affordable if the wages of its workers at all levels of the company were doubled.

    With data compiled by Arnobia Morelix, a graduate student with the University of Kansas, the report concluded that, should McDonald’s hypothetically double its worker’s wages, a Big Mac’s price would rise 68 cents while items on the Dollar menu would rise an extra 17 cents.

    After the analysis was made public on Monday, readers at Forbes and the Huffington Post pored over the data and discovered an anomaly: Morelix had only accounted for payroll and employee benefits of company-operated stores, excluding franchised locations from his study. When one considers the vast number of McDonald’s restaurants operated under franchise, this data suddenly seems a bit misleading.

    The numbers were later resolved to include franchisee data, arriving at the Big Mac price increase of $1.28 based on twice the current pay. Dean Baker, a HuffPost blogger and co-director for the Center of Economic and Policy Research, suggested that such a wage increase would involve some layoffs although other workers would be incentivized to remain in their jobs for longer than they planned.

    Regardless of the initial numbers’ correctness, a real discussion on a living wage for fast food worker’s seems to be taking place. Aimee Picchi over at MSN suggests that it may be feasible to raise that Big Mac’s prices, particularly when considering that many minimum wage workers receive food stamp assistance when feeding themselves and their family. The example she gives of this principle at work is a Wal-Mart supercenter, which because of low wages arguably causes taxpayers to hand out $1.7 million per year (or about $6000 per worker) in government benefits.

    In spite of her optimism, Picchi’s analysis seems directly discounted by restaurant industry experts. Bonnie Riggs, an analyst from the NPD group, spoke with the Huffington Post about doubled wages for McDonald’s, suggesting that this kind of price hike is nowhere near financially feasible. Riggs said that while restaurants cut prices just to entice consumers to keep coming, profit margins have slimmed to the point that a labor cost increase could be fatal to the industry. The company could not survive if its labor cost that much.