this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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I don't think it's just certain countries. I think it's all of them. Does minimum wage anywhere actually allow you to live?
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Minimum wage does not exist in all EU countries and, even where it exists, don't take it for granted. Things change faster than you'd expect.
The European countries that don't have minimum wage generally have something to replace it, such as strong collective bargaining agreements. I don't think it's a complete replacement, but it's not as bad as things were two hundred years ago.
Minimum wage laws are actually quite recent for large parts of Europe. Even then, the minimum wage set wasn't exactly a liveable wage at the time.
I don't expect abolishment if minimum wage here any time soon, especially as the government has tried to combat the "independent contractor on paper, employee in practice" situation (although there's still a lot of work to do).
You don't seem to know the South of Europe. Or maybe PIGS should not be even labelled Europe because it looks like a different part of the world, nothing of what you mentioned applies. Collective agreements, minimum wages, measurements to stop exploitative job contracts... what is this Soviet Russia?
I can see Italy and Austria missing minimum wage, but Portugal, Spain, Greece, and just about every other southern country has minimum wages.
I suppose Austria and/or Italy may lack collective bargaining, but that's not "the south of Europe".
You can live off minimum wage in Canada in some regions, if you're children-free. It gets harder with kids, though the state will cover some of it of you're low-income (Like a couple hundred per months, and virtually no income taxes).
I don't think minimum wage is intended to be enough to live on. If you start working as a teenager by the time you have to pay your living expenses it would be quite doubtful that you are still making minimum wage.
Then again, as they say, your milage may vary. In my part of the world there might as well be no minimum wage as even the most entry level positions are offering nearly double the minimum wage.
Offering double is pretty good (Assumedly). Where I live traditionally minimum wage jobs might give you an extra 50p. They are also manned mostly by adults, I mean if they weren't shops would be shut during school hours.
In US, most people in service industries that pay minimum wage aren't teenagers. They're people across all ages. Teenagers may be more represented there than in other sectors, but there are probably a lot more people in the US making minimum wage or a wage tied to minimum than you think.
A looot of service jobs that don't pay minimum wage are still within a couple dollars of it or so.