In Zurich, Switzerland, the cost of living is insane. It’s similar to NYC that way. The difference is that their minimum wage is 23.90 CHF / hour which is almost exactly $30 USD per hour.
Because it’s such a high cost city, people earning a minimum wage aren’t living a luxurious life. But, they do live a pretty “normal” life. They can go skiing in the winter (getting to the slopes using trains and trams). They can go out to eat as a treat, or go to a club. They can buy healthy foods, and can easily afford their (mandatory) health insurance.
It means a lot of things are more expensive, which basically means the middle class and rich are subsidizing the people earning the least. And this is despite Switzerland being an extremely right-wing country by European standards. You really see the affect of high minimum wages when you’re paying for things where a big part of the cost is minimum wage labour. Like, if you order food for delivery, you might as well order something expensive and luxurious, because you’re going to pay the equivalent of about $20 as a delivery fee.
It’s a system that seems to work a lot better than what NYC currently has. When even the lowest paid person is “comfortable”, they have more pride in their job, and more confidence in their value. They know they’re not as disposable. It also helps that Switzerland has much stronger unions than the US. 45% of all workers in Switzerland are covered by collective bargaining agreements, which is very low by European standards, but is way, way higher than the US rate of 12.1%.
There are already parallels between Zurich and NYC because of the presence of some extremely highly paid people, especially finance bros. But, Zurich should be a model for NYC, and with a $30 minimum wage, they’d take a big step towards that.
Have you ordered delivery in New York? $20 in fees and tips are not uncommon at all. But that reinforces the point, things are not usually expensive because of high labor costs. It’s a cost, but businesses that can’t afford to pay for labor are exploitation.
Time to go skiing? NO. They should be working 9 days a week. No one should have time for anything except working to make the rich cunts even fucking richer :/
Everybody should have a minimum income that they can comfortably live from in every country, period.
In CH are all the restaurants etc. expensive due to the wages being higher? Or is it mainly due to extra food costs?
What if we don’t increase the minimum wage, but increase the minimum income? Aka give people extra money if they work for minimum wage in certain area’s like restaurants. Just a theory.
(In NL we have had situation where the company would get extra money to compensate the higher wage cost, mostly the NOW during Covid)
Switzerland does import a lot of its food, so expensive food is definitely part of the cost in restaurants. I don’t know what the mix between food costs and labour is. But, high labour costs are part of the expense.
I’m not sure what you’re talking about with your minimum income. Are you saying that certain jobs deserve a higher minimum than other jobs? Which jobs are ones where the minimum wage is allowed to be lower? If restaurant minimum wage/income is higher, does that mean that say delivery drivers are paid less?
Minimum income aka, everybody will have their income at a max of say 3k a month. If you work for a boss and you earn 1k there than you get 2k from the government. If you earn 4k you get nothing from the government f.e.
We already subsidize companies, but that doesn’t always end up in the hand of the employees.
Look, we have to accept that not every company can be profit driven and sustain itself. That can be an issue with wage costs or with other costs. Things like theatres often get money from the government to fill the gap. Companies with old historic buildings often get money from the government to keep those buildings in check. Startups also get helped by the NL government in the form of tax cuts etc.
UBI would also help with edge cases. Or people who cannot work etc. Yes there are also issues with this.
It’s Switzerland, skiing is a normal sport, like swimming or bike riding. It’s not something glamorous with champagne and caviar, it’s what you do on the weekend with your buddies, going by train or carpooling and eating some sausage with French fries, or a packed sandwich.
Most people aren’t a short drive from the resort. It’s staying at the resort, renting equipment, eating out, and daily lift passes that’s the biggest expenses for most people. For locals all you need is your own equipment and a $350 annual ticket and it’s basically free after that apart for parking.
In addition, in the US most skiing is at “resorts” and you can only get there by car or bus. In Switzerland you hop on a tram, maybe take a train, get another tram, and then you’re at the hill. You might not even need to pay for the tram because you have a monthly pass you use to get to work the other days.
In Zurich, Switzerland, the cost of living is insane. It’s similar to NYC that way. The difference is that their minimum wage is 23.90 CHF / hour which is almost exactly $30 USD per hour.
Because it’s such a high cost city, people earning a minimum wage aren’t living a luxurious life. But, they do live a pretty “normal” life. They can go skiing in the winter (getting to the slopes using trains and trams). They can go out to eat as a treat, or go to a club. They can buy healthy foods, and can easily afford their (mandatory) health insurance.
It means a lot of things are more expensive, which basically means the middle class and rich are subsidizing the people earning the least. And this is despite Switzerland being an extremely right-wing country by European standards. You really see the affect of high minimum wages when you’re paying for things where a big part of the cost is minimum wage labour. Like, if you order food for delivery, you might as well order something expensive and luxurious, because you’re going to pay the equivalent of about $20 as a delivery fee.
It’s a system that seems to work a lot better than what NYC currently has. When even the lowest paid person is “comfortable”, they have more pride in their job, and more confidence in their value. They know they’re not as disposable. It also helps that Switzerland has much stronger unions than the US. 45% of all workers in Switzerland are covered by collective bargaining agreements, which is very low by European standards, but is way, way higher than the US rate of 12.1%.
There are already parallels between Zurich and NYC because of the presence of some extremely highly paid people, especially finance bros. But, Zurich should be a model for NYC, and with a $30 minimum wage, they’d take a big step towards that.
Have you ordered delivery in New York? $20 in fees and tips are not uncommon at all. But that reinforces the point, things are not usually expensive because of high labor costs. It’s a cost, but businesses that can’t afford to pay for labor are exploitation.
Time to go skiing? NO. They should be working 9 days a week. No one should have time for anything except working to make the rich cunts even fucking richer :/
/s
Everybody should have a minimum income that they can comfortably live from in every country, period.
In CH are all the restaurants etc. expensive due to the wages being higher? Or is it mainly due to extra food costs?
What if we don’t increase the minimum wage, but increase the minimum income? Aka give people extra money if they work for minimum wage in certain area’s like restaurants. Just a theory. (In NL we have had situation where the company would get extra money to compensate the higher wage cost, mostly the NOW during Covid)
Switzerland does import a lot of its food, so expensive food is definitely part of the cost in restaurants. I don’t know what the mix between food costs and labour is. But, high labour costs are part of the expense.
I’m not sure what you’re talking about with your minimum income. Are you saying that certain jobs deserve a higher minimum than other jobs? Which jobs are ones where the minimum wage is allowed to be lower? If restaurant minimum wage/income is higher, does that mean that say delivery drivers are paid less?
Minimum income aka, everybody will have their income at a max of say 3k a month. If you work for a boss and you earn 1k there than you get 2k from the government. If you earn 4k you get nothing from the government f.e.
Why not just get 3k a month from the boss? Why should the government subsidize your income so that your boss can pay you less?
We already subsidize companies, but that doesn’t always end up in the hand of the employees.
Look, we have to accept that not every company can be profit driven and sustain itself. That can be an issue with wage costs or with other costs. Things like theatres often get money from the government to fill the gap. Companies with old historic buildings often get money from the government to keep those buildings in check. Startups also get helped by the NL government in the form of tax cuts etc.
UBI would also help with edge cases. Or people who cannot work etc. Yes there are also issues with this.
Some companies, sometimes. Sure.
Then they should be allowed to fail. If it’s an essential service it should be a government department not a company.
UBI is a good idea, but that’s entirely different.
You can’t talk about having a normal life and mention skiing right away. Most people can’t afford to go skiing
Skiing in Switzerland is like skating anywhere else.
It’s Switzerland, skiing is a normal sport, like swimming or bike riding. It’s not something glamorous with champagne and caviar, it’s what you do on the weekend with your buddies, going by train or carpooling and eating some sausage with French fries, or a packed sandwich.
Most people aren’t a short drive from the resort. It’s staying at the resort, renting equipment, eating out, and daily lift passes that’s the biggest expenses for most people. For locals all you need is your own equipment and a $350 annual ticket and it’s basically free after that apart for parking.
In addition, in the US most skiing is at “resorts” and you can only get there by car or bus. In Switzerland you hop on a tram, maybe take a train, get another tram, and then you’re at the hill. You might not even need to pay for the tram because you have a monthly pass you use to get to work the other days.
In Switzerland they can.