4 ms·

Switzerland's need to export stuff and to do business with the surrounding EU-countries is bigger than the EU-countries' need to do business with Switzerland. P

Switzerland's need to export stuff and to do business with the surrounding EU-countries is bigger than the EU-countries' need to do business with Switzerland. Putting a minimum wage this high will naturally impact the prices on goods leading to a shrinking export market. I wonder how they came up with $25/hr and not, let's say, $17,50/hr?

seanmcdirmid 12y ago
Switzerland is already very expensive; a meal at McD's will run you at least 12 CHF. This rise in the minimum wage is not going to affect exports at all (which are all very high end...and how many bankers make minimum wage?); it will make some things slightly more expensive (on top of already being pretty expensive).
- brunnsbe 12y ago
  Switzerland exports more than just bank services, e.g. grocery products like cheese and chocolate which are products produced with low wages. And yes it'expensive, I'm currently living in Gèneve and paying more than enough for my kebabs (it's cheaper to pay for the tram to Annemasse in France and have the kebab over there).
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    The farmers are well protected in Switzerland, while the chocolate making is highly automated. What the higher minimum wage will do is push either for automating or exporting lower wage tasks, which will reduce immigration (since those jobs are not really done by swiss citizens anyways), and there are surprisingly a lot of xenophobic people in Switzerland that are OK with this.
fla 12y ago
It is an honest question, and that's also the most controversial point. The initiants ask for a min wage of (raw) 4000 CHF per month which is approximately 3000 CHF net of taxes. Why this number ? People pretend that's what one need to live well. The reality is more complicated than that, as you may guess, the cost of living really depends on the region and on the industry sector. That's why opposants want to solve this problem with per industry sector conventions (ie: there is already a minim wage in the watch industry) rather than with a global try-fix-it-all law.

seanmcdirmid 12y ago

Switzerland is already very expensive; a meal at McD's will run you at least 12 CHF. This rise in the minimum wage is not going to affect exports at all (which are all very high end...and how many bankers make minimum wage?); it will make some things slightly more expensive (on top of already being pretty expensive).

brunnsbe 12y ago
Switzerland exports more than just bank services, e.g. grocery products like cheese and chocolate which are products produced with low wages. And yes it'expensive, I'm currently living in Gèneve and paying more than enough for my kebabs (it's cheaper to pay for the tram to Annemasse in France and have the kebab over there).
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  The farmers are well protected in Switzerland, while the chocolate making is highly automated. What the higher minimum wage will do is push either for automating or exporting lower wage tasks, which will reduce immigration (since those jobs are not really done by swiss citizens anyways), and there are surprisingly a lot of xenophobic people in Switzerland that are OK with this.

fla 12y ago

It is an honest question, and that's also the most controversial point. The initiants ask for a min wage of (raw) 4000 CHF per month which is approximately 3000 CHF net of taxes. Why this number ? People pretend that's what one need to live well. The reality is more complicated than that, as you may guess, the cost of living really depends on the region and on the industry sector. That's why opposants want to solve this problem with per industry sector conventions (ie: there is already a minim wage in the watch industry) rather than with a global try-fix-it-all law.