Switzerland Vote Overwhelmingly Against World’s Highest Minimum Wage
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Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to introduce what would have been the world’s highest minimum wage at 22 francs ($25) an hour, citing the possible impact on employment and economic competitiveness.
In a national referendum on Sunday, 76.3 percent of voters spurned the union-backed minimum wage proposal, which would have affected just 10 percent of the population – with the median hourly wage hourly wage already at about 33 francs ($37) an hour.
Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to introduce what would have been the world’s highest minimum wage at 22 francs ($25) an hour, citing the possible impact on employment and economic competitiveness.
In a national referendum on Sunday, 76.3 percent of voters spurned the union-backed minimum wage proposal, which would have affected just 10 percent of the population – with the median hourly wage hourly wage already at about 33 francs ($37) an hour.
“It is a clear vote by the people, a vote of trust in the economy,” Hans-Ulrich Bigler, director of the Swiss trades association, told Swiss television.
“A fixed salary has never been a good way to fight the problem,” added Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann to the Associated Press.
[quote]“If the initiative had been accepted, it would have led to workplace losses, especially in rural areas where less qualified people have a harder time finding jobs,” he said. “The best remedy against poverty is work.”[/quote]The Swiss Business Federation, Economiesuisse, said the results show that the Swiss people wouldn’t tolerate government intervention in a free-market economy. “We were able to show that the initiative hurts low-paid workers in particular”, the group’s president, Heinz Karrer, said.
“Switzerland, especially in popular votes, has never had a tradition of approving state intervention in the labour markets,” noted Daniel Kübler, a professor of political science at the University of Zurich, to the New York Times. “A majority of Swiss has always thought and still seems to think that liberal economic principles are the basis of their model of success.”
The proposed minimum wage would have been more than double the existing highest minimum wage in the world. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which adjusts figures for spending power, the highest current minimum wage is Luxembourg’s at $10.66 an hour, followed by France at $10.60, Australia at $10.21, Belgium at $9.97, and the Netherlands at $9.48.
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Unions however argued that the measure was necessary because of the high living costs in big Swiss cities such as Geneva and Zurich.
Nonetheless, Daniel Lampart, the chief economist of the Trades Union Confederation, admitted that the minimum-wage initiative had been an ambitious goal.
“People want collective bargaining agreements to guarantee good salaries,” he told the website swissinfo.ch.
Lampart however said that the proposal at least succeeded in raising the issue of low pay in some Swiss business sectors. Supporters of the minimum wage for instance expressed concern mainly about women working in the low-paid retailing and catering sectors and in unregulated industries, such as fitness clubs and call centres.
