Germany is unusual in that it doesn’t currently have a national minimum wage; pay scales for different industries are traditionally fixed by management and union organizations, in regular rounds of negotiations. Two elements of the planned minimum wage are notable. The first is the level being proposed, which is 45 percent above the U.S. minimum wage — considerably higher than that in some other European countries such as Spain, although below France and the Netherlands. The Hans Böckler Stiftung’s Institute of Economic and Social Research has a handy guide to minimum wage rates around the world here.
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