>Hi Jordan,
>
>Unless I misunderstood, I disagree with you. I realize that the history of our two countries is different, but the higher salaries in the U.S. were mostly won by competition internally in the U.S., salary minimium wages set by our government (although that only affects the low-income poverty level jobs), and working conditions. The salary alone is not what is so expensive for employers to hire U.S. workers. In the U.S. the employers that have greater than 25 employees must provide certain benefits. There is a very high tax burden for corporations in the U.S. too regardless of public opinion. And employers in the U.S. (and certain other countries) must provide a certain working condition which is not the case in all countries.
>
Hi Tracy,
you easily can find that there missing relationship between peverty level and minimum wages. There are a lot of people which are poor, but do not accept job at minimum wage. They prefer to stay at home and to receive social transfers (we do not come in this category :-) even if we lose our job we will continue to work).
The jobs at minimum wage attract imigrants, which have low standard of living and even this minimum wage guarantee a little bit higher standard of living. In the same moment consumers like corporations to keep some services at low price level and only this black market can afford them to do this.
During weekend I watch a TV program where Dutch authority explain this - illegal imigrants are bad thing, black job market is bad thing, hiring of immigrant is bad thing, BUT we need them. We need as low as possible paid workers which to work in building, glasshouses, cleaning because dutch citizents couldnt afford to pay for higher cost vegetables.