What is the minimum wage in your country?

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?

11.78 USD here in NZ $471.20 for a 40 hour week with sick days depending on your contract and 4 weeks annual leave a year not enough to live on really if you live on your own.

@Time_Lord:

We get about $1.27 for every one of your dollars - I must come for a holiday.

$9.86 per hour in the UK. That's £6.08.

A bit weird converting these into USD considering that, from my understanding, the majority of the US doesn't strictly have a minimum wage.

We don't have a legally set minimum wage in Denmark, but the average minimum wage in most fields equates to 18 US dollars an hour, and the workweek is 37 hours, we get 6 weeks of annual leave. It might sound nice, but the tax rates are the highest in the world I believe, and there are fees and charges on everything, cars for instance are ridiculously expensive compares to a lot of countries like Germany or the United States.

@bibamatt said:

$9.86 per hour in the UK. That's £6.08.

A bit weird converting these into USD considering that, from my understanding, the majority of the US doesn't strictly have a minimum wage.

Wow, that's not a lot. I would have thought the UK would higher, considering your costs are probably higher than Australia.

The US thing is like the Big Mac rate, easy to compare.

@JacDG:

Taxes are that hidden cost that is near impossible to compare. Deing a social democracy ourselves, our taxes are pretty high, but I imagine less than most of Europe. As ours is a sliding scale system, you can't just use a percentage.

@Contrarian said:

@bibamatt said:

$9.86 per hour in the UK. That's £6.08.

A bit weird converting these into USD considering that, from my understanding, the majority of the US doesn't strictly have a minimum wage.

Wow, that's not a lot. I would have thought the UK would higher, considering your costs are probably higher than Australia.

The US thing is like the Big Mac rate, easy to compare.

Yeah it's not really the best here, and the cost of living here is a lot, lot higher than the US. Doesn't help that we're currently in a huge recession and no-one can afford shit and there's no jobs etc.

Oh well, we still have videogames.

@Contrarian: I suppose that comparing the conversion isn't an accurate representation, seeing as it's purely based on the current exchange rates. Like, the GBP exchange rates are totally fuuucked at the moment (like, if I go to the States, I get a terrible amount of dollars for my pounds) but that doesn't reflect how much the pound is worth in the UK. Does that make sense? A mathematician/someone cleverer could probably explain that better. You'd have to look at average living costs, average food prices etc to work out how the rates compare, not just what they convert into USD.

986$ per month in Cyprus. We've got a communist president right now so you can imagine that its very high benefits :P.

I'm not sure what it's like anywhere else but if you're 18-20 it's £4.98/$8 then it bumps up to £6.08/$9.86 for 21 and over.

@AlexW00d said:

@Contrarian said:

@bibamatt said:

$9.86 per hour in the UK. That's £6.08.

A bit weird converting these into USD considering that, from my understanding, the majority of the US doesn't strictly have a minimum wage.

Wow, that's not a lot. I would have thought the UK would higher, considering your costs are probably higher than Australia.

The US thing is like the Big Mac rate, easy to compare.

Yeah it's not really the best here, and the cost of living here is a lot, lot higher than the US. Doesn't help that we're currently in a huge recession and no-one can afford shit and there's no jobs etc.

Oh well, we still have videogames.

I have a friend I met on a video game site, who moved to Australia from the UK (I actually met a game site person in real life) about 2 years ago and he sure as hell is having a great time, with his big house with a swimming pool and hot weather to use it for. It makes his friends back home very jealous.

@bibamatt said:

@Contrarian: I suppose that comparing the conversion isn't an accurate representation, seeing as it's purely based on the current exchange rates. Like, the GBP exchange rates are totally fuuucked at the moment (like, if I go to the States, I get a terrible amount of dollars for my pounds) but that doesn't reflect how much the pound is worth in the UK. Does that make sense? A mathematician/someone cleverer could probably explain that better. You'd have to look at average living costs, average food prices etc to work out how the rates compare, not just what they convert into USD.

A single currency just gives an easy reference point, but it is important to keep in mind how that relates to what it is like to live on that money. I tried to paint a bit of a picture on that from an Australian perspective. It can sound like a lot, but not really be so. So we are in agreement on that. It is more about what the minimum you can be paid and could you live on it.

@gamefreak9 said:

986$ per month in Cyprus. We've got a communist president right now so you can imagine that its very high benefits :P.

Communism? Does that still exist :P

the us minimum wage is 7.25 but it fluctuates state by state. i live in mass and its 8 bucks if u go a state up to Vermont its 8.46.

Minimum wage here is close to 400 USD... A MONTH. No chance in hell you can live out of that.

On top of that you are supposed to get sick days and vacation time and all that stuff, but a huge amount of people are working outside work regulations, so they do not get any of that.

I have a great job though, so none of that stuff applies to me personally.

@JacDG said:

We don't have a legally set minimum wage in Denmark, but the average minimum wage in most fields equates to 18 US dollars an hour, and the workweek is 37 hours, we get 6 weeks of annual leave. It might sound nice, but the tax rates are the highest in the world I believe, and there are fees and charges on everything, cars for instance are ridiculously expensive compares to a lot of countries like Germany or the United States.

About 50% income tax is pretty high. We do get something for it though, like free the healthcare and education and a ton more then that.

e: I saw somewhere(Wikipedia) that the average minimum wage in Denmark is about 100,- DKK or $17,80 an hour.

@Rasy said:

@JacDG said:

We don't have a legally set minimum wage in Denmark, but the average minimum wage in most fields equates to 18 US dollars an hour, and the workweek is 37 hours, we get 6 weeks of annual leave. It might sound nice, but the tax rates are the highest in the world I believe, and there are fees and charges on everything, cars for instance are ridiculously expensive compares to a lot of countries like Germany or the United States.

About 50% income tax is pretty high. We do get something for it though, like free the healthcare and education and a ton more then that.

e: I saw somewhere(Wikipedia) that the average minimum wage in Denmark is about 100,- DKK or $17,80 an hour.

Yeah, I'm not really complaining, love me some free health care, free education, and being paid to study.

We don't have a minimum wage here in Denmark since it is negotiated between unions and employer associations.

But according to Wikipedia was the average in 2009 about 103.15 DKK per hour (with a standard week consisting of 37 hours) which translates into around $18.39 USD.

But of course if we look at taxes then the government takes around 50% of that in taxes + around 1% to the Church of Denmark if you're a member of that, then you also need to add the VAT whenever you want to purchase anything which is 25% of the products price which goes straight to the government too.

@Contrarian said:

Communism? Does that still exist :P

It could well be on the upswing again actually. What's a better cause for the rise in an ideology centred on economic equality than runaway executive wage packets while everyone else is struggling to get by with wage rises not even meeting inflation?

I didn't even know Cyprus had an actual Communist President. Apparently the first time an EU nation has had a Communist head of state

Here in Kazakhstan, I believe minimum wage is something like 21,000 KZT per month (about $150 USD). Cost of living is generally rather low, especially when you factor in how easy it is to get cheap goods in places like bazaars and markets. However, some parts of the country--namely the capital, Astana, and the old capital, Almaty--are considerably more expensive than everywhere else. As an American working here, I make a decent salary (by American standards) but most of my colleagues make a fraction of my salary but do the exact same job.

Interesting that this topic was started on International Workers' Day, one of the few days that warrant an official holiday in Kazakhstan. Of course, it's called "International Day of Ethnic Harmony" or some gibberish like that here. We can't have workers organizing, oh no...

In Washington state we have $9.04 which is the highest in the country. Depends where you live in Washington, you could eke by on $9.04.

I don't know the exact rate, but after taxes, it comes out to a little under $33K a year.

@ATrevelan said:

Here in Kazakhstan, I believe minimum wage is something like 21,000 KZT per month (about $150 USD). Cost of living is generally rather low, especially when you factor in how easy it is to get cheap goods in places like bazaars and markets. However, some parts of the country--namely the capital, Astana, and the old capital, Almaty--are considerably more expensive than everywhere else. As an American working here, I make a decent salary (by American standards) but most of my colleagues make a fraction of my salary but do the exact same job.

Interesting that this topic was started on International Workers' Day, one of the few days that warrant an official holiday in Kazakhstan. Of course, it's called "International Day of Ethnic Harmony" or some gibberish like that here. We can't have workers organizing, oh no...

We manage to get a Worker's Day holiday in Australia as well - Labour Day or The 8 Hour Day. It is always a Monday - woot, long weekend!

@Video_Game_King said:

I don't know the exact rate, but after taxes, it comes out to a little under $33K a year.

What is the cost of living like on the Moon? Does that buy enough cheese?

€8.65 which is about $11.50. Things are a bit more expensive in Ireland, but that's only bad for tourists I guess. Paid annual leave is 4 weeks, and paid maternity leave is 26 weeks, with an additional unpaid 16 weeks. After working for 6 months, you can't be fired without good reason. Third level education is free along with healthcare, and unemployment pays €200 a week or $265 and if you fall below a certain threshold of hours, you qualify for this as well.

One distinction I would like to make is that the food in Ireland may be more expensive than in America, but I have discovered that the food we have in Europe is much closer in quality to food from the US' organic section rather than its standard food, which is far more expensive. The food you guys sell over here is illegal by most country's standards...

Anyway, I'm currently jumping from country to country and switch between musician, farmer and unemployed, so I can't really relate my current experience to any of this.

307 USD/month.

We don't have a minimum wage in Sweden. I've seen jobs paying as little as 9USD an hour and after income tax that is 6USD and then comes the fact that the price is higher here because of higher VAT and such so it is closer to 4USD in purchusing power. So in effect it is 4USD per hour. I make in USD about 13-14 dollars and it's barely enough to stay alive. Especially since our work has 6h work days insetad of the regular 8. If we had 8 I would at least be able to do alright economically.

The thing here is that if your work is unionized you get very good pay. A friend just got a similar job as I have but his company negoiates the pay with the union so he gets about twice as much as I do. While my company doesn't negoiate salary at all. they just say "yeah your wage is the same as last year and we know it is worth less because of inflation but you'll still like it bitches because you have no choice, there's plenty of high school students ready to take your places if you quit." but not in so many words.

For comparison the avarage salary is about 40k USD a year (before the 30-35% income tax) here and the lowest wage I've seen gives you about 16kUSD a year (before income tax) if you work full time so it's about a third of what the avarage joe makes. By comparison social welfare gives you almost as much money if you don't work...fucked up.

I make less money some months when there is little work than I did on welfare but I don't want to live on fuckin welfare. Sorry for the swearing.

the system here is pretty fucked up. If you are unionized you get 6 weeks paid vacation. I get nothing. For example today is May 1st so there is no work today. I had to work overtimw yesterday to try to somehow compensate for the loss in hours since I don't get a single penny if work is closed but people paid by the month insetad of by the hour like me get their regular monthly salary no matter how many holidays there are so they love their holidays and I hate them. Christmas is the worst, so many holidays that my pay is cut so much I have to beg for money from my mom. You have no rights what so ever if you are not working for a place that is unionized. For a country that is supposed to be fairly socialistic it sure exploits the fuck out of the workers not fortunate enough to get a job with a place that is unionized.

technically my work is a second job for students or for people with another day job. So technically I should not be living off of it.

In Canada it's $10/hour now, a standard work week is 40 hours. Minimum wage is mostly just retail/fast food/part time, if you are working anywhere full time, you are likely earning $15/hour at a minimum.

2 weeks vacation plus 11 public holidays through out the year that are paid, there are no specific number of sick days allowed, but there is no sick pay for most jobs, if you miss work, you don't get paid.

While we do have healthcare, employment insurance, government run pension plan, and a variety of other programs, our taxes are relatively high so that $10/hour minimum wage is certainly not what you receive on your pay.

@JacDG said:

@Rasy said:

@JacDG said:

We don't have a legally set minimum wage in Denmark, but the average minimum wage in most fields equates to 18 US dollars an hour, and the workweek is 37 hours, we get 6 weeks of annual leave. It might sound nice, but the tax rates are the highest in the world I believe, and there are fees and charges on everything, cars for instance are ridiculously expensive compares to a lot of countries like Germany or the United States.

About 50% income tax is pretty high. We do get something for it though, like free the healthcare and education and a ton more then that.

e: I saw somewhere(Wikipedia) that the average minimum wage in Denmark is about 100,- DKK or $17,80 an hour.

Yeah, I'm not really complaining, love me some free health care, free education, and being paid to study.

the smallest tax is in the entire country is 22,7 but the norm for a minimum wage is 38 including church tax

the minimum wage was raised in 2009 to 103.15 DKK per hour or roughly 18,39 USD

so with a full-time job of 37 hours makes 2721,72 $ a month before taxes

but as you guys already said the high tax gives a great safety net. the same net that makes sure that our doctors dont take advantage of foreign people like the americans did to me. i was there and they tried to get me to pay a bill of 15000$ for a sever heart condition, and a 1 day stay at the hospital. when i got home 3 days later to go check it with my doctor i found out that it was basically nothing just me being overworked. so yeay me

Could not live on minimum wage where I live.

£100 every two weeks.

9,50 $/h in Quebec witch is about 9,70 USD/h.

@Contrarian said:

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?

It’s strange that your minimum wage is so far over Canada's minimum wage (witch depending on the province is 9, 25$/h to 11$/h), normally our two countries are very similar...Need any architectural drafter in the land down under?

We don't have minimum wages in Norway but anything below 110 NOK/h or 19,25$/h is generally frowned upon.

@SmilingPig said:

@Contrarian said:

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?

It’s strange that your minimum wage is so far over Canada's minimum wage (witch depending on the province is 9, 25$/h to 11$/h), normally our two countries are very similar...Need any architectural drafter in the land down under?

If you work in the Mining Industry you can get a job anytime.

I wass surprised as well. I thought Canadians were always slightly better off than most Australians in most areas. Man I love Canada, We should merge and become a superpower!

The minimum wage in Virginia is $7.25. You probably couldn't really live off that, but most of the places that pay minimum wage are hiring high school students anyways. If you go to school or learn some kind of skill, there isn't much of a reason for you to be working for minimum wage.

Currently it's variable, depending on field of work. Though you'll get at least 13-15 bucks an hour from my experience, regardless of what you're doing. They're currently working on getting a 22 bucks/hours minimum wage for full time workers across the board though. Wonder if that'll stick.

The majority of professionals earns somewhere between 4'000 and 8'000 bucks a month.

1914.99 USD per month. Before taxes. Tax rate at that income level is 33.1%.

$8.00 out here in California

Federal minimum wage in the US is $7.25/hr (individual states can have higher minimum wages but not lower), unless you recieve tips as part of your job (if you are a server or something) then the minimum wage is $2.13/hr.

$9.04 here in Washington state, I think that's one of the highest in the US.

There is nothing like that in Germany. 
And you call us socialists!
 
Actual wages differ alot from East to West. The worst you could find is probably ~4.50€/h for a real shitty job somewhere in East Germany and maybe ~6.50€ in the West. 
But that would be really low.

I am in California, USA and minimum wage is $8 an hour. I make $15 per hour and have a difficult time living on my own, minimum wage would be hell. Also, I am work right now, no day off for me =(

@RVonE said:

1914.99 USD per month. Before taxes. Tax rate at that income level is 33.1%.

Wow, that is messed up having taxes so high on the lowest tax bracket, where are you from?

I think it's $9.50 here in Saskatchewan. I think it's different for each province in Canada though. I think it is around $9.40 in Alberta. In the East it's higher, but it costs a lot to live in some places there, though it isn't exactly cheap here anymore. 
 
Edit: There's no way you can live off that here, even with a full-time job. Apartments have raised in price every year for the last while (I think the average is like $1200/month now, maybe a bit less), and housing prices have tripled. We bought our house for ~$100000 in the early 90s and now it is worth almost $325000, and it isn't even a fancy house and it isn't in a new area. Houses in new areas go for almost half a million. My brother bought a condo and it was around $260000.

@Kidavenger said:

@RVonE said:

1914.99 USD per month. Before taxes. Tax rate at that income level is 33.1%.

Wow, that is messed up having taxes so high on the lowest tax bracket, where are you from?

The Netherlands. Lowest tax rate is 33.1% Most people are in the 41.95% income tax bracket.

$7.67 per hour in Florida, USA as of January 2012. Now the poverty threshold for the lower 48 states is $11,170 for a single person, $15,130 for a two-person household and $23,050 for a family of four. [source]. If you're earning minimum wage, after taxes, you're slightly above or at the poverty line as a single person household. You may get some of those tax dollars back after you file in April depending on where you live. However, no matter how you look at it, if you're trying to support someone else in addition to yourself, such as a child, then you're below the poverty line in America.

$10.00 an hour in Nova Scotia, Canada

328$ per month here in Brazil. But things are extremely expensive here. If you buy 3 new X360 games, say goodbye to your money. And if you plan on buying an XBOX360? You better not eat, nor pay your bills, because you need to work two months to get that amount of money.
I love Brazil, but my country is fucked up.

Its $10.25 in BC, Canada now

7.25, USA, North Carolina.

The most I've ever made is 9.50/hr, while working over the summer at my college, which when living with your parents and only having to pay for next semester, was essentially a gold mine. My games collection grew tremendously. Couldn't do that this year so I've got to find a shitty job or get a ton of scholarships in three months and never, ever go anywhere or spend anything.