In article >,
Ophelia > wrote:
>
>Oh dear We have a National Minimum wage law set in law
>
>https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates

We have one too; it's $7.25/hour. However, companies like WalMart
will hire twice as many people at 20 hours per week, so that they
don't have to pay benefits (for example, paid time off, health insurance,
retirement fund) to these part-time employees.

We can account for the differences in cost of living and exchange rate
by using the Big Mac index:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graph.../daily-chart-3

It costs $2.50 to $2.99 in the U.S., so it takes about 24 minutes
to earn a Big Mac at the federal minimum wage. The average in
England (only data I could find) is 2.89 (sorry, no pound symbol
here). Minimum wage appears to be 6.31 for adults. It appears to
take 27 minutes to earn a Big Mac in England.

At first glance, the U.S. minimum wage worker appears better off.
House is very difficult here, though, since we have nothing
like council houses/flats. And, of course, the American workers
will have to pay for all of their own medical expenses.
So the minimum wage worker might be better off in England.

Sorry I couldn't find anything for Scotland with a quick google.

Cindy Hamilton
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