The minimum wage is a much debated issue in almost every country. In the media your find two positions: either people want to lower the minimum wage, even liquidate it, or people want the minimum wage to go up.
Yet that divide does not exist among the almost 8,000 people who voted in the latest WageIndicator web poll: the overwhelmingmajority is in favour of an increase of the minimum wage.
Employers fear a higher and enforced minimum wage will hurt their competitiveness. The argument goes industry-wide: the textile industry in Southern Africa, the agriculture in the US and nursing homes in Europe.
But not the working people. In Latin America for example, even more than 90 percent of the voters feels the minimum wage should go up. In Paraguay some respondents put it this way: the minimum wage, if it is paid at all, equals the maximum wage.
The lowest is the percentage among US voters, but still 71 percent isin favor of a raise. The preferred next best option is freezing of the minimum wage instead of a cut, with in the US 10 percent in favor of a freeze.
Most of the WageIndicator sites worldwide have information on the minimum wages in their countries. You can find a full overview here. For the US you can find it here, and for Paraguay here.
