A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks Australia as offering the most generous minimum wage in the developed world. The report ranks twenty seven nations that have laws establishing a nationwide minimum rate of pay. Australia’s minimum wage workers make the equivalent of about nine US dollars and fifty four cents per hour once cost of living differentials are considered.
As reported by CNNMoney, other nations actually set higher hourly rates than Australia, but they also tax their minimum wage workers more. The U.S. ranked eleventh on the list with its seven dollar twenty five cent minimum wage. That leaves workers with take home pay of six dollars and twenty six dollars an hour.
The report’s most remarkable finding is that a single Australian minimum wage worker with two children could work just six hours per week to lift themselves above the poverty line because they would also receive state benefits.
In the U.S., that same worker would have to work fifty hours per week to escape poverty -- in the Czech Republic, nearly eight hours. In addition to Australia, nations offering the most generous minimum wage include Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland and France.
