I agree in part, however with a national living wage the burden on the taxpayer of the benefit system & worker self esteem would improve by not relying on benefits to top up wages. It is damning to know that the vast majority of the UK benefit budget goes on in work benefits. Perhaps it's time governments stopped demonising the unemployed for draining government coffers & started demonising employers who pay so badly that the state has to pick up the tab
What is agreed by a union for unionised pay in certain industries I can't comment on, but as far as national minimum wages go, Australia is comfortably the highest in USD term (source: wikipedia - font of all knowledge) Australia - $17.39 Luxembourg - $14.24 Monaco - $12.83 San Marino - $12.49 France - $12.22 And so on down.
it's not right, the Australian minimum wage is €16.87 per hour, which is less than US$14.00 and almost exactly the same as the €11.10 minimum wage in Luxemborg. As the minimum wage isn't always set by government(so is not always called a minimum wage) McDonalds is often used as a more accurate indicator, as they effectively pay the real minimum wage in each country. In the US they pay about $8.00, in France $12.00, in Australia $14.50, but Norway is miles ahead of anywhere else at over $20.00 per hour.
To try and compare minimum wages is somewhat pointless, as cost of living in different countries vary, as said by others Scandanavia for example has a higher cost of living than here, as well as higher taxation levels.
Australian minimum wage is about AUD$14 I'm fairly sure, not sure where that rates on the conversion scale. It's definitely not up around $17.
