As per the reports, the voters in the global hub for diplomacy Geneva, Switzerland, have come to an agreement to introduce a minimum wage which is equivalent to the US $25 an hour considered to be the highest in the world.
How Did This Happen?
The agreement is applicable to a minimum wage in the canton – a type of administrative division of a country.
While voting, 58% of voters in the canton were in favor of the initiative to set the minimum wage at 23 Swiss francs an hour.
The decision was backed by a coalition of labor unions and the main aim was to “fighting poverty, favoring social integration, and contributing to the respect of human dignity,”.
So far, Switzerland has no national minimum wage law.
While Geneva is the fourth of 26 cantons to vote on the matter in recent years after Neuchâtel, Ticino and Jura.
Geneva State Counselor Mauro Poggia said, “This new minimum wage will apply to about 6% of the canton’s workers as of November 1st,” in a statement to CNN.
While describing the result, the Communauté genevoise d’action syndicale, the umbrella organization of unions in Geneva said “a historic victory, which will directly benefit 30,000 workers, two-thirds of whom are women.”
Further, the historic decision is also appreciated by Michel Charrat, president of the Groupement transfrontalier européen, an association of workers commuting between Geneva and nearby France.
Direct Democracy In Switzerland
According to the Swiss system of direct democracy, it calls on voters to exercise their right four times a year and further allows them to collect signatures to introduce “popular initiatives” to be enacted.
In the past, two times in 2011 and 2014, the initiatives to set a mandatory minimum wage in Geneva had been submitted to the population and got rejected, according to Poggia, in charge of the Department of Security, Labor and Health for the Geneva canton.
Finally, on 27 September, a new vote on this subject was accepted, for a salary of 23 Swiss Francs per hour, or slightly more than 4,000 Swiss Francs per month for an activity of 41 hours per week, said Poggia.
Which is roughly $4,347 per month.
Compared to the United States, a $25 per hour minimum wage may astonish you as the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.
Coronavirus Impact
The decision is believed to be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Michael Grampp, Deloitte’s chief economist in Switzerland.
Since the low-income workers in the service sector were found to be the most affected by the lockdown measures put in place in Switzerland.
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