Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. None of these nations have an minimim hourly wage enshrined in law. Instead many of the base terms of employment, including wages, are decided via collective bargaining between sector trade unions and representatives of public sector and business interest organizations.
Minimum wage decided by politics is something taken for granted in many parts of the world, but ultimately it’s a question that most of all affects the suppliers (employees) and buyers (employers). The government will always be behind the times in legislation and have many other interests to juggle than yours - don’t just be a passive participant in the market.
I live in Sweden by the way, so feel free to ask me questions on the topic and I’ll do my best to answer.
Wouldn’t the problem of the government not keeping up be solved by just indexing minimum wage to inflation?
Partly, but there is more to collective bargaining than that.
a) Indexed inflation levels tend to be underreported (exactly due to things like this)
b) it does not allow for over-time adjustment of real wage levels. As productivity increases, the real wage usually goes up. During periods of economic crisis you often see the largest wage increases in absolute terms, but a decrease in the real wage due to inflation. These negotiations are the toughest.
That was the intent, says so in 1938 Labor Law (it was to rise, the minimum being enough to feed a family of four and keep them above the poverty line).
bOtH pArTiEs abandoned this long ago. But stock market is at 50K!!!#
Sure, but generally by collective bargaining produces a higher wage for the employee
Por qué no los dos?
son mutuamente excluyentes
No they’re not?
They can be used as a low anchor in bargaining which may undermine negotiations
In Oregon we changed our minimum wage to go up some each year for a few years then be indexed to inflation via the consumer price index. Feel like that plus an extra bit of indexing to population helps a lot.
https://www.oregon.gov/boli/workers/pages/minimum-wage.aspx
cali does raise thier MW often, but its also HCOL so im not surprising oregons doing this.
It used to work like that in Italy, although not with a national minimum wage but with union-negotiated contracts. At least some of them had a clause that automatically raised base salaries according to inflation.
I read somewhere that clause was removed because it’d cause a vicious loop where raising inflation meant higher wages, which in turn drove up inflation.
At face value it makes sense, but I’m no expert so I can’t say whether that’s correct or some bs to keep wages low.
My understanding of the research is that a higher minimum wage can increase costs, but as a lesser proportion than the increase (edit; to the wage). Labor costs are only portion of expenses for any business, and workers making minimum wage only reflect a portion of the workforce. So, there’s not a zero effect, but I believe it’s usually less than fear mongering would suggest.
I haven’t read into this in at least five years, so happy to admit my own incorrectness if someone knows better.