I am originally from the States but moved to Australia.
Before I moved away I lived in a bible belt state that was one of the 18 US states that have a “tipped minimum wage” of $2.13 an hour. In those states if you have a job that earns tips you get paid $2.13 an hour, and your employer is supposed to match that wage to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
However you can imagine if you are one of the lucky ones who has a job in the only restaurant in town, that asking your boss for those missing wages after a slow night is not going to get you anything but fired. There are dozens of other desperate people willing to take your place in a heartbeat.
I find a lot of people aren’t aware of the situation for large swathes of the US. The amount of people who are homeless or hungry or sick with no help is astronomical for a “first world country”.
What I find interesting is that after a cursory google search it would appear that China indeed has minimum wages, and those are interestingly not far off that $2.13 an hour.
I am originally from the States but moved to Australia.
Before I moved away I lived in a bible belt state that was one of the 18 US states that have a “tipped minimum wage” of $2.13 an hour. In those states if you have a job that earns tips you get paid $2.13 an hour, and your employer is supposed to match that wage to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
However you can imagine if you are one of the lucky ones who has a job in the only restaurant in town, that asking your boss for those missing wages after a slow night is not going to get you anything but fired. There are dozens of other desperate people willing to take your place in a heartbeat.
I find a lot of people aren’t aware of the situation for large swathes of the US. The amount of people who are homeless or hungry or sick with no help is astronomical for a “first world country”.
What I find interesting is that after a cursory google search it would appear that China indeed has minimum wages, and those are interestingly not far off that $2.13 an hour.
https://www.china-briefing.com/news/minimum-wages-china/
The lowest hourly minimum wage in a province I could find was 16.5 RMB which works out to $2.30 an hour.
Now there are of course nuances here, like those jobs in China not being tipped, the cost of living, healthcare, etc.
I do think that things in the States are becoming more dire than most realise, and things in China have been steadily getting better.
In any case I feel very privileged to live in Australia and raise my children here.