This article came up in another thread, let me repeat what I've said there, because this article is inaccurate: The 20 USD/h sounded like a bit much, so I did

This article came up in another thread, let me repeat what I've said there, because this article is inaccurate: The 20 USD/h sounded like a bit much, so I did a check on that number. According to a site about wages by the largest Dutch union, the minimum wage for a 40 hour workweek is 1491.70 EUR/month. That comes down to about 8.61 EUR/h or (current FX on Yahoo) 12.06 USD/h. It may be higher if a union negotiated more for a certain sector, but in general, 12.06 USD/h is the minimum wage. It seems like Ms. Mees is exaggerating a bit to make her point. Another inaccuracy in her article surfaces when she refers to the polls that say that Wilders' party is currently leading. The polls she is referring to suffer from severe selection bias. People sign up to be part of the panel that gets polled. Since Wilders' supporters are mostly disgruntled with current political affairs, it seems very likely that they are overrepresented in those polls. I don't think she was aware of that though. These polls are done weekly and generally get some press (sad but true), mostly without any critical note (or any note at all) about the methodology (even sadder). [Wilders may very well gain quite a following, but it's not evident from those polls.] ( Original here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=624823 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=624823 )