Swiss Fail To Vote For "to Protect Equitable Pay"

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27459178

I post this only because of its "just about interesting" status ! A far away country, of which we know little perhaps ?

[jim360]

Annual Salaries of not least than £32,000 a year? No wonder it was rejected!

[mikey4444]

But think of the scenery jim !

[tonyav]

Toblerones are cheap.

[Gromit]

A minimum salary of £32,000?

They must live in cloud cuckooclock land.

[mikey4444]

I think that is more Black Forest gromit, but I get your point !

[Old_Geezer]

One cannot reasonably form an opinion on the size of the wage without being familiar with the cost of living there. But if the taxpayers really are subsidising companies who fail to pay a living wage then rejection will have been a mistake. Employers should pay the right rate for what they use, not expect everyone else to pay for them.

[youngmafbog]

Setting minimum wages is simply inflationary.

If you increase the person at the bottom, then their boss wants more because they are the boss, the bosses boss then wants more and so on. Products go up to pay for the higher wages across the board and everyone is actually worse off in the long term.

[mikey4444]

YMB...you may or not be right but that isn't an excuse to continue to pay 100,000's of people poverty wages. In Britain today, most of these people are paid such low wages that the State has to step into make their income up to living wages.

In other words, the taxpayer is subsidising greedy employers...how can that be right ?

[jim360]

I think it's true that increasing wages tends to drive inflation, but it's not the only cause of inflation so it would presumably be very damaging for those on low wages if you suddenly cut out the rung they are standing on. On the other hand, a minimum wage of £32,000 per year equivalent is just utterly ridiculous. I'm not aware of exactly the standards in Switzerland so it's hard to compare exactly, but this is something like 30% greater than the average wage in this country. I can't see that it's realistic at all.

[mikey4444]

I posted this mainly out of devilment, as Switzerland is a very wealthy country indeed. But even Boris is calling for a higher minimum wages these days, so maybe this is an idea whose time has come !

[youngmafbog]

All I am doing Mickey is pointing out the folly of a high minimum wage. I am not against a minimum wage but you have to be very careful with it for the reasons I have mentioned or it becomes utterly futile.

Personally I prefer to take people out of the tax bracket and have a lower band/rate. I never understood why Brown abolished that.

[joggerjayne]

Terrible country. Best avoided.

[mushroom25]

//Terrible country//

strictly speaking it's not a country. it's a confederation of 26 states (cantons), Confoederatio Helvetica, hence its abbreviation CH.

[gingejbee]

Well, I've been there several times on holiday and loved it (summertime). Rather pricey...but everyone seems so well-behaved...even teenagers!

[royfromaus]

A minimum salary of £32,000?

They must live in cloud cuckooclock land.


Well I liked it ( Mikey, The Swiss make cuckoo-clocks and the Black Forest stretches into Switzerland)

[royfromaus]

JoggerJayne doesn't want AB rabble in Switzerland.

[mikey4444]

I have visited Switzerland many times in my life, with and without skis and I think is quite the most beautiful country that I have been to. But I am not sure if I would to live there....the Swiss are very conservative ( with a small c ! )