Swiss Standard Of Living ?

[Maxus-MIFA9]

Hur..... they reject minimum wage increase ....

 

 

Yahoo news: Swiss voters reject world's highest minimum wage, block fighter jets

 

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss voters on Sunday rejected proposals to introduce the world's highest minimum wage and spend $3.5 billion buying new Gripen fighter jets from Saab.

 

About 76 percent of voters in the wealthy nation dismissed the proposal made by Swiss union SGB and backed by the Socialist and Green parties for a minimum wage of 22 Swiss francs ($25) per hour, final results showed.

 

Meanwhile, some 53 percent blocked a government plan to free up funds to replace Switzerland's aging fleet of fighter jets with 22 Gripen jets from Saab. Just over 55 percent of those eligible voted, the government said.

 

The clear rejection of the proposed minimum wage - which corresponds to a monthly paycheck of 4,000 francs (about $4,500) - brings relief to business leaders worried the measure would have hurt competitiveness and damaged the Swiss workplace. "If the initiative had been accepted, without doubt that would have led to job cuts, particularly in remote and structurally weaker regions," Swiss Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann said at a news conference.

 

Sunday's vote is the latest in a slew of initiatives being put to voters to try to address the widening income gap in the generally egalitarian country. Voters overwhelmingly backed a referendum last year to give shareholders a binding say over executive pay, but turned down a proposal to cap the salaries of top executives at 12 times that of a company's lowest wage.

 

Supporters of the minimum wage had argued the proposed measure would have helped smooth out salary inequality and ensure a person working full-time can live decently. Despite the resounding "no", Daniel Lampart, chief economist at SGB, said the debate around the measure in the run-up to the vote had prompted many firms to introduce a minimum wage of more than 4,000 francs.

Discounter Lidl raised minimum Swiss salaries to 4,000 francs last year and retailer H&M has vowed to follow suit next year, although employers do not acknowledge a direct link to the proposal.

 

Swiss voters have a history of voting against proposals they feel could hurt the country's economic success story or threaten competitiveness. Yet the public unexpectedly voted by a razor thin majority in February to curb immigration from the European Union and last year backed a proposal to give shareholders a binding say over executive pay - both times ignoring warnings from business groups.

 

 

more of the stories: link: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/swiss-voters-reject-worlds-highest-minimum-wage-projection-115625943--finance.html

 

 

[Kklim]

Still waiting for mine. Then again maybe GCT meant "shit standard of living". He never was a good speaker and mispronounced some words.

[Sosaria]

You can see that the swiss have quite mature electorate.

 

Sometimes they reject pro-business moves, for example, by voting to curb immigration, thereby preventing cheap labour from flooding the country.

 

And sometimes they support pro-business agenda, e.g. by restricting minimum wage.

 

What's important is that the voters get to decide, instead of being led (forced) to accept bad decisions.

[Wt_know]

but the swiss want 2,500 swiss francs to be given even to jobless

pro-biz, pro-govt, pro-people, pro-simi?

Edited May 19, 2014 by Wt_know

[Ktglfc]

Maybe they should vote for progressive wage scheme?

It's just min wage packaged into a nice term :)

Now, our cleaners get a min wage of $1k under progressive wage.

 

We are always good at packaging and repackaging :)

[Baal]

Maybe they should vote for progressive wage scheme?

It's just min wage packaged into a nice term :)

Now, our cleaners get a min wage of $1k under progressive wage.

 

We are always good at packaging and repackaging :)

 

Not to mention w above package, can own HDB flat.

[Aaronlkl]

-deleted-

Edited March 2, 2016 by Aaronlkl