US minimum wage compared to UK and France

The minimum wage in the US is about one half what it is in France and the UK.And people in France and the UK think,and rightly so that their countries minimum wage is still very low.And of course everyone in France and the UK,all of Western Europe for that matter gets premium(good socialized medicine) healthcare.---Since alot of you here are younger people in your teens or 20s,your thoughts?

 

my thoughts are quite simple - get rid of all minimum wage

 

It's not so much the minimum wage,but having a very low minimum wage like the US does keeps other salaries very low too.So its bad for people who work at salaries even 3 times the minimum wage.Not to mention in countries like France by law people get at least 2 months vacation with pay a year and so on.

 

if you're not an idiot with your money it is very easy to live on U.S. minimum wage. the french are being whiny bitches.

 

I'll also add its a big business con-game when they say if you raise the minimum wage,prices go up.Not true.CEOs making 20 million dollars a year are the reason prices go up.Those same CEOs have American companies manufacture many low quality products in third world countries now,and people actually pay MORE for cheap junk made in China.

 

it is tough too with minimum wage because the worker then has no say in anything simply because given the current state of the economy if you fuss about pay or fuss about your job there is 349536 other people looking to take that job from under you who will gladly work for the minimum

 

wages ARE prices

 

it depends on the business, among other things. when you employ a million people at minimum wage, and minimum wage suddenly goes up by $1.60 an hour (like it did here a couple years ago), that's an extra $1.6 million an hour they have to spend in order to make exactly the same amount of money. that has to come from somewhere.

 

I mentioned this in another thread,where I reside you cannot hire anyone for less than 12 dollars an hour(no one will take a job for less,even the most basic job) and prices here for the most part are the same or even lower than the US mainland.

 

People tend to tip more in the US, if you work in a bar or a restaurant anyway.

 

Also, not sure but I think the US minimum wage in the mid 1960s was over a dollar an hour.Adjusted for inflation that would be about 10+ dollars an hour now, which is similair to the UKs minimum wage

 

Sounds a little like how a Third World country or Banana Republic conducts things.

 

It's the direct result of having selected idiotic presidents (Bushes and their kin) and blindly believing that uncontrolled capitalism is a blessing for others than corporations. Americans have been brainwashed for generations about how any governmental adjustment is pure communist-evil. When Hillary Clinton tried to make a humane health care plan is was shot down with the usual old outdated commie-evil arguments. Just look at Europe and see how well they implemented free health care and free college education for all. Micheal Moore's film, Sicko, really tells it as it is.

Because of the commmie-scare nobody dared speak up when they lowered the minimum wage to near starvation level. 12% of Americans live below poverty level. Capitalism has always been worshipped in the US but without any control it is such an inhumane and degenerate system. Look what uncontrolled capitalism did for the food industry. It created a nation of obesity and barely edible junk food as main fare.

 

living expenses are much, MUCH higher in those countries as well... locality adjustment makes sense... Now CHINA, is a different story... work for the equivalent to 30 cents and hour and sleep on a cot in a factory, now they have a right to complain haha

 

Now that is just god damn funny

 

I'd say it's sad rather than funny

 

Couldn't agree with you more

 

Our minimum wage is probably the minimum of the US minimum wage

 

Things are very expensive in Britain compared though, are they not?

 

France €8.71 per hour; €1,321.02 per month for 151.67 hours worked (or 7 hours every weekday of the month) 17,231

United States the federal minimum wage is US$6.55 per hour; states may also set a minimum, in which case the higher of the two is controlling 13,624

Not exactly half. Nowhere near half.