Just out of curiosity, what is the minimum wage in your country (for a single reference point, add a conversion to USD for ease of comparison) and for a greater topic of conversation, is it sufficient to live a reasonable life, or would it require 2 jobs to survive. Also out of interest, what is a working week for you, what sick leave do you get and how many days annual leave is the norm?
In Australia it is currently $15.51 ($16.00 US) per hour or $589.30 ($608 US) a week for our normal week of 38 hours, $30,628 ($31,600 US) a year. You are likely to get at least 8 sick days a year, possibly up to 12. Everyone gets 4 weeks annual leave.
My staff who owrk as casuals get about $25 ($25.80 US) an hour, which is a pretty decent figure if you ask me. Even a junior, casual at McDonalds gets $15 an hour. Keep in mind that everything is more expensive in Australia than the US, but I am sure we are still better off. Now I earn substantially more than the minimum wage, so I can't speak for those that do, but I imagine it would be pretty tough to get by on that, mainly due to expensive housing/rents in our country. Still, as a welfare state, a good social democracy, you would be eligible for quite a few government handouts, including rent assistance and energy cost rebates. In net effect, you would boost that $30K up a fair bit. Plus, you have no medical costs as hospitals are free and doctors visits are usually bulk-billed (meaning free). It wouldn't easy, but it would be possible to live on the minimum wage.
How is it for your country or experience?
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