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Old 06-19-2014, 07:51 AM
 
Location: NC
6,032 posts, read 9,250,482 times
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Ever heard of or considered the differences in cost of living? You cannot begin to fathom what a fallacy making a flat comparison is.

There are ALOT of variables.
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Old 06-19-2014, 12:22 PM
 
7,005 posts, read 12,534,525 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mdovell View Post
Click on the hourly rate and click again. It's the highest in the planet on a national level.

It's like a pivot table with information you have to click on it to get lowest to highest and/or vice versa.

Now seattle on the other hand...
I should have checked back with this thread. I sorted the hourly rate from highest to lowest. There are several countries ahead of us. Australia has a minimum wage of $16.88. Ours isn't even close to that, so how can we have the highest minimum wage?
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Old 06-19-2014, 01:02 PM
 
9,855 posts, read 15,258,495 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by L210 View Post
I should have checked back with this thread. I sorted the hourly rate from highest to lowest. There are several countries ahead of us. Australia has a minimum wage of $16.88. Ours isn't even close to that, so how can we have the highest minimum wage?
That is unadjusted for cost of living, and Australia's cost of living is roughly 1.6x that of the US. Also, Australia has a variable minimum wage where different aged employees have different minimum wages. The $16.88 is the minimum for the highest age group.

When you adjust for cost of living (using purchasing power parity), Australia's minimum wage ranges from $3.67 to $9.77 in US dollars, assuming equal cost of living.

The highest minimum wage in America is over $9/hr (Washington State), so we are in the same ballpark as Australia. Some areas of Australia pay better than some areas of the US (and vice versa) when factoring in cost of living adjustments.
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Old 06-20-2014, 06:40 AM
 
7,005 posts, read 12,534,525 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hnsq View Post
That is unadjusted for cost of living, and Australia's cost of living is roughly 1.6x that of the US. Also, Australia has a variable minimum wage where different aged employees have different minimum wages. The $16.88 is the minimum for the highest age group.

When you adjust for cost of living (using purchasing power parity), Australia's minimum wage ranges from $3.67 to $9.77 in US dollars, assuming equal cost of living.

The highest minimum wage in America is over $9/hr (Washington State), so we are in the same ballpark as Australia. Some areas of Australia pay better than some areas of the US (and vice versa) when factoring in cost of living adjustments.
I was strictly referring to the Wikipedia link. And, Australia wasn't the only country with a higher minimum wage.
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Old 06-20-2014, 11:35 AM
 
3,078 posts, read 5,037,874 times
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Comparison with Minimum Wage and COL:

How America's Minimum Wage Really Stacks Up Globally - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic
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Old 06-20-2014, 01:48 PM
 
Location: Corona the I.E.
10,137 posts, read 17,571,968 times
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Australia has 2 critical things we don't have. They have been selling a ton of natural resources to China and they don't border the third world.
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Old 06-20-2014, 05:13 PM
 
Location: Arizona
3,763 posts, read 6,747,035 times
Reputation: 2409
Quote:
Originally Posted by S.S. Lazio View Post
There is a delta to where a certain skill's wage climbs and climbs until it intersects the point where investment into exploration and development of mechanized labor begins to become logical.

America has hit that point. At $7/hr it never made sense for McDonald's to design and implement machinery to complete tasks. At $15/hr it has.

I'm actually pretty excited as machines don't put their genitals on your sandwich, spit in your coke or fail with the simplest of tasks. That alone is worth it.
Lol, I am sure a machine is bound to fail here and there. Plus if those order machines do become the standard I can definitely see them having some ridiculous survey or questionnaire you must answer before you order.
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Old 06-20-2014, 07:08 PM
 
48,493 posts, read 97,213,307 times
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Because on average we have less unemployment and more people actually working. For instance young people are at 25% Unemployed in Europe and most on so called Dole. That is welfare there .Even if they get a middle class job likely they can't get on what is called The Latter in UK which is home and other property ownership. In US the historical average of homeownership is 65% and it got into low 70% in bubble running up to 2007crisis.Asl someone in UK about availability of 30 YEAR fixed rate mortgages. No such thing exist. Gasoline is tripe what it is in US now.
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Old 06-21-2014, 02:16 PM
 
13,395 posts, read 13,604,336 times
Reputation: 35712
Isn't the true minimum wage the minimum amount one is willing to accept?

There are many people who will never (unless something traumatic happens) have to work for less than a minimum of (insert your number).
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Old 06-21-2014, 02:19 PM
 
Location: SW Missouri
15,851 posts, read 35,267,452 times
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Because the cost of living is so low compared to other developed countries. Have you seen what housing prices in Italy or Germany are? Do you have any idea how much a liter of gas costs in England?

20yrsinBranson
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