MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands to introduce minimum wage; document recommends £ 5, 50 the hour
Over the years there has been talk of implementing a minimum wage in the Falkland Islands, a significant amount of work has been undertaken on the issue and a minimum wage should be in place by early 2013. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesLet me see 5.5 Quids for 80 hours a week is =220 QpW * 4= 880 pounds.
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 04:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0I what I call Pomie’s misery salary for idiots. Ha ha
880 pounds with such overvalue currency and especially in the Islands where everything will cost more than in UK. Like the shitty house made of wood (prefabricada villa 31 style) of 65k pounds.
That is what they call to be rich?
Are they joking. Are they?
And they want to import English to make roads for them for that succulent salary?
I don’t know what they drink in the Islands back sure I want some of it and double please...
I think your maths needs a bit of work DanyBerger, 5.5 * 80 is 440 - so your final answer is £1,760. But then again your whole argument is flawed....
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 05:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0@2
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 06:51 am - Link - Report abuse 0No, he just expects a currency to devalue by 1/2 each month, like Argentina's...
LOL LOL
Meanwhile, CFK is going to the UN to make an idiot of herself in front of the whole world. :-D
@meisterbud
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 08:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0Just a typing mistake Mr. mini Me Isterbud, just a typing mistake that's it all.
Is 40 hours a week you should realised that was a mistake by seeing the 220 GBP result per week.
And my argument is really good, a person earning 880 Pounds per month in a economy more more expensive than UK is pretty poor.
Is already poor in UK, the rent of a bedroom in London cost the cheaper ones for poor 90 pounds a week, then you have to eat 30 pounds in tesco per week (just pasta and hamburgers, toilette paper, shampoo, soup and water), 50 pound to go to work and move around in public transportation. 170 pounds and the poor guy does not even drink a beer.
Is that is not to be poor what it is mate?
Who the hell is going to work there?
English in despair to make roads for you?
By the way any picture of the houses of the rich people in the Islands?
@Troy Tempest
With that salaries not even the pound devaluation will help.
What about to pay a real salary according with the value of your currency?
@4
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 09:41 am - Link - Report abuse 0People working on roads in the Falklands get alot more than minimum wage. I know several builders who have made themselves alot of money working in the Islands.
Danny if the Islanders are not in your eyes rich at the moment they are going to be alot poorer if Argentina take over as Argentina HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO RUN AN ECONOMY=third world government who let down decent Argentines.
Do you reckon CFK will get investment for YPF in USA after they shafted Repsol?
They have not suceeded yet whereas the Falkland Islanders have suceeded in getting investment from the USA.
Learn from the Falkland Islanders danny, their British DNA makes them more savvy than your mates with Spanish DNA.
@1 You clearly have a problem. Is it that you can't read? Or is it that you can't comprehend? This article is about a MINIMUM legal wage. According to research, argieland has a minimum monthly salary of 1,500 ARS. That's £197.10. An average monthly salary is 8,801 ARS. That's £1,156.50. Then there's a maximum monthly salary of 30,833 ARS. That's £4,051.80. So the Falkland Islands is considering a minimum wage of £5.50 an hour. That's £946 per month. Generally speaking, a monthly salary for Britain is for four and one third weeks, not four weeks. But then the article points out that the lowest wage found in FIG is £5.70 per hour. That works out to £980.40. But whether it's £946 or £980.40, it's nearly FIVE times the argie minimum wage and only a little lower than the argie average wage. So at least three things you're deficient in. Reading, comprehension and arithmetic. Also, possibly, wages where you are. In addition, I'm sure that I've read somewhere that many Falkland Islanders have two jobs. That could mean a monthly income of £1,960! Any Falkland Islanders want to tell us about average and maximum wages in the Falklands?
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 11:29 am - Link - Report abuse 0@Conqueror
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 12:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Nope Conquer Purchasing Power is what matters.
1-The minimum wage in ARG is $2670 at the moment and would be in February $2.875 plus benefits (extra hours, premiums, family salary, health insurance, etc, etc). So the worker can earns $5000 or whatever.
http://www.losandes.com.ar/notas/2012/8/28/nuevo-salario-minimo-vital-movil-sera-2.875-663591.asp
2- Even with 1000 Pounds as you said is nothing for an economy with such overvalued currency so you earn in Pounds but you expend in pounds, food is in pounds, rent is in pounds, etc..
Or are you telling me that someone with 1k pounds per month is rich in the Pound zone?
3- Doesn’t matter how many jobs they have because we are basing the calculation on 40 hours a week and for a stable job then if the worker works more, are extra hours and should be paid more for that hours.
4- With 1000 pounds in UK may be you can just survive like a dog living in a room with 30 illegal workers sharing the same house.
Like this perhaps 700 pounds per month very cheap. Isn’t it?
http://www.losandes.com.ar/notas/2012/8/28/nuevo-salario-minimo-vital-movil-sera-2.875-663591.asp
http://www.losandes.com.ar/notas/2012/8/28/nuevo-salario-minimo-vital-movil-sera-2.875-663591.asp
Families need 52.000 pounds at year (4333 pounds per month) to afford a rent in London.
http://www.losandes.com.ar/notas/2012/8/28/nuevo-salario-minimo-vital-movil-sera-2.875-663591.asp
Salaries in UK are pretty shit everyone can tell you that.
Now if the Islanders import almost everything from UK (even the houses) should be there cheaper or more expensive than UK?
65k pounds for a house Argie villa 31 style I guess is tooooo expensive.
What do you think Conqueror?
Comparing to London - one of the most expensive cities in the world is just not realistic. You can rent a decent flat in UK for £500 /m and feed a family of 4 for £200.
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 02:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You are right, it's not a luxury salary - but as you are saying - it's minimum wage - you cannot expect luxury!
But seeing as this only effects 91 people you can't really use this to slate the Falkland economy.
I've been to a few houses on the Islands, shopped in the shops, eaten in the restaurants and stayed in the hotels - similar prices to UK (outside London) except for beer which is much cheaper.
Standards of living for the people at the bottom of the ladder are certainly far superior to those I've seen in Latin America.
How many people are actually on minimum wage? Not many I bet
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 03:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Do Argies work 80 hours a week?
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 03:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0But I would imagine the islanders put in more than 40 hours a week for menial jobs, so let us settle on 50 hours.
Minimumm effective rate at present is £5.70, so annually is £14.820, USD at the moment 1.562, so dollar annually is US$23,148 @ blue pesos rate of 6.3/USD, so annual AG pesos is AG$145,837 per annum or AG$/12 is 12,153.
Questions:
1) how many AG menial workers get AG$145,837 per annum or AG$12,153. per month?
2) does anybody want to employ Danni-Burger on the Falklands, because this is way above his wildest dreams?
NOTE: no sensible International Currency dealer in the UK will quote a rate for AG pesos, hence the need to convert to USD first.
This is what greed and averice do to the Argies.
LOL
@10 Chris
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 06:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You are forgetting that Argentina says their citizens can adequately feed themselves on only“ 6 pesos a day.”
@11
Sep 22nd, 2012 - 09:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Of course, how silly of me!
LOL
Comment removed by the editor.
Sep 23rd, 2012 - 01:11 am - Link - Report abuse 0Glad to hear that
Sep 23rd, 2012 - 02:21 am - Link - Report abuse 06 Conqueror
Sep 23rd, 2012 - 10:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0I was about to say, is there a minimum wage in Argentina? scratch that, is there a wage in Argentina at the moment? given that inflation is running at, what? 25% / 30%??? I wonder how much money this actually gives them? how much disposable income this gives a family after meeting all of their bills? not a lot I could imagine...
But nuff respec to the FIG for bringing this one in, although we have had the minimum wage in the UK for a while now, I wonder what caused the Falklands to lag behind on this one?
Anyway ( as ever ) watch and learn Argentina, watch and learn, and the Falkand Islands will show you how it's done.
Everyone here is forgetting the most important thing of all:
Sep 23rd, 2012 - 10:52 am - Link - Report abuse 0MINIMUM WAGES ARE USELESS!!!
It is purely political and has no benefit to society in any situation. If a company hires on workers that are currently getting paid the min wage and there is an increase, then the owner will have 3 choices:
1) Raise the prices of his products. This becomes enviable as the countries products become overly expensive and are unable to be imported. Plus citizens must also pay more for such a product in their country.
2) Fire the employees and replace them with automation. This has been the case in many developed countries because unskilled labor has become expensive 0r citizens simply are unwilling to work for such salaries and/or jobs.
3) Close up shop and/or move to another country. This has the been the reason for so much outsourcing that countries hate so much. China with its cheap labor, unregulated work enviornments, etc., has attracted the manufactures of the world for this specific reason.
And to sum all of this up:
IF MINIMUM WAGES ARE SUCH A GREAT IDEA AND SO EFFECTIVE, WHY DON'T WE RAISE IT TO SAY $10/hr?? $100/hr?? $1000/hr??
$1,000,000,000???? In one week we can all be as rich as Bill Gates!!!
@meisterbud
Sep 23rd, 2012 - 01:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And what do you want to compare mate?
The countryside of England with Buenos Aires?
1k pound it is a shity salary even if you have accommodation in the countryside of England you cannot live with 1k pounds.
And out side London salaries drop drastically so accommodation cheap and salaries more shit.
“superior to those I've seen in Latin America”
Where in Bolivia perhaps?
@ChrisRambo
40 hours is the basic after that are extra hours so if someone works 50 hours, 40 are pay with the regular collective work agreement, if the extra hours are placed during the workable week the worker receives 50% more base on his salary and if the hours are in days like Sundays or holiday day he gets paid 3 times the normal salary. No worker can work more than 48hs so he can choose to work extraordinary hour after that.
“does anybody want to employ Danni-Burger on the Falklands”
I guess not because I am too expensive for poor Islanders sorry, mate.
@BAMF Paraguay
I guess you have no idea of what you are talking about salaries in the modern industrial sector only represents 10/15% of the value of a sold product. And is likely to be a worldwide proportion (with the exception of hire and fire countries and China, India, etc).
In the long run countries like China will have to increase salaries to keep going like Japan have done.
Japan Started like China selling cheap copies of western manufactures and now Japan’s manufactures are not cheap. In the long run all get the right balance if you are not death in the process.
Ha ha
@17 DB
Sep 23rd, 2012 - 02:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I am a bit confused by your English and grammar.
Do you mean no AG workers can work for more than 48 hours?
OR, do you mean that they CAN work more than 48 hours BUT will get enhanced payments?
In the UK they are denoted as time & a half / double time / triple time.
Even if they can work more than 48 hours I bet that my rate at 50 hours (£5.70) is still more than your 48 flat + 2 at time and a half.
You have not said what the minimum wage is. Is there a minimum wage at all in AG?
BTW, we are NOT talking about living in London or even in the UK, we are talking about living in OUR Falklands (there are STILL no Malvinas).
I await your answers.
@Dany -
Sep 23rd, 2012 - 03:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Like I said, if having a min wage is so damn good for a country, then why are the politicians not raising it to $100/hr? It seems almost cruel that they wouldn't if you consider your opinion. The reason is obvious and if you are unwilling to recognize it then it is your choice to remain in the ignorant state that you are living.
“The decline of US manufacturing is relative. US manufacturing, on an absolute basis, is still growing. However, this is not the case for the manufacturing employment. More than one-third of American million manufacturing jobs disappeared between 1970 and 2010, while the Chinese now enjoy a total labor force five times that in the U.S.” (Economist Online, 2010)
As we can see, manufacturing has moved to China, and not only because China can provide cheap labor, but because they also have less regulation on pollution, labor laws, etc.. So the more good ol' government tries to “help” an economy to grow or provide better work conditions and wages for their citizens, the more harm that is actually done. Take women and children as an example; companies in the USA, Paraguay, Brazil, don't like to hire them because they have too many laws attached to them. Women get so many months off for maternity leave, children can only work so many hours and can't work in any situation that is dangerous. And then the paperwork to comply with hiring these people is obscene. In the end companies prefer to pay a higher salary to men because they don't come with these protective laws. And if you notice, women get paid less and are less employed.
I understand your view of socialism/progressiveness/communism/ paints a bright and beautiful picture, but the reality is just that it doesn't work. Those leaders of yours (and mine) are only out to get rich and powerful themselves.
@17 DB
Sep 23rd, 2012 - 04:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Erm - I thought we were comparing with the Falkland Islands.
I was basing my prices on a city in the south of England, about the same size as San Juan.
But maybe I should have compared prices with a village the size of Stanley in an area of the UK where you can't commute to a bigger town - say the Orkney islands. Well I can get a 2 bed flat there for £380 per month..... Plenty left over for food and drink.......
You can live on 1k per month - I've lived on far less and managed to thrive. You've just got to cut down on the Moet.
And fair enough, I've not been fortunate enough to visit Argentina - but then I suspect you've never been to the Falklands, and seeing as you are comparing FI to UK, you are most likely arguing from a position of ignorance.
@ 20 ;)
Sep 23rd, 2012 - 05:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@ ChrisRambo
Sep 24th, 2012 - 06:16 am - Link - Report abuse 0Legislation is complex and for that reason there are Lawyer specialist on the matter.
1-A working journey is considered completed when a worker works 8 hours per day (included 1 hour for lunch). Example from 8:00hs to 16:00hs
2- After the 8 hours if the employee agrees to work more or the work requires to stay extra time, let’s say 2 hours that time are extra hours and have to be paid more.
3-A worker cannot be force to work more than 48 hours in the week if he doesn’t want. But if he wants can make all the extra hours allowed or offered by the employer to be done in his job.
Of course this is a general guidance because depending of the sector, industry, etc. to the worker belongs. So they can work less or have an especial arrangement.
4- “You have not said what the minimum wage is. Is there a minimum wage at all in AG?”
Yes I did it is $2670 (see post #7) or USD 14 per hour, this is the lower salary that a worker can be paid, plus every extra hours, premiums, benefits, family salary, health insurance, risk work insurance, etc.
In Argentina only 113k workers are under this category the rest have minimum salary much higher than that.
@ meisterbud
In you rent are included the sheep too?
@22 DB
Sep 24th, 2012 - 12:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Thank you for that.
I have to admit utter surprise at the hourly rate of USD14 per hour, the equivalent of £8.97 or call it £9 ph.
Perhaps this is why everything is so expensive in AG, plus the taxes that are levelled for seemingly every step in the process to the buyer.
@ChrisR
Sep 24th, 2012 - 12:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If you have read the fake article made by ClarinMiente (that also was reproduced here in MP) about the complaining of “Polo Rocca from Techint” that motivated the exchange letters with CFK, etc.
It says “But Rocca’s point is an interesting one. He says wages in his sector, at $24 per hour, ...”
http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/09/07/techint-falls-foul-of-cristina/#axzz27OB6SK2k
That I guess was the only thing that can be cited as truth because the rest is just ClarinMiente crap.
“Perhaps this is why everything is so expensive in AG, plus the taxes that are levelled for seemingly every step in the process to the buyer.”
Well you have to thank that to necons good for nothing like Cavallo who rose VAT from 18% to 21% plus all the mess introduced copy past from Italy about the tax system.
All the bureaucratic crap and taxes introduced in Argentina to the contrary to what people believes were introduced by Necons since Martinez de Hoz, the guy that everyone considers as liberal. Ha ha
But even though are like in Europe, VAT UK 20%, Spain 21%, Germany 19%, Sweden 25%, France 19.6%, etc.
BTW Don’t you live in Uruguay?
Is not there VAT 23%?
Mr Berger are you unaware that VAT In Argentina is 21%?
Sep 24th, 2012 - 06:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The minimum wage in Argentina is $2670 Pesos, just like Dany stated. In the real exchange rate, 6.35 Pesos = $US, that would be equal to $US420.47. Considering a 40 hour work week, that would be 160 hours per month. So that would be $US2.63/hour. Confirm my math if you would like but I'm quite sure that it is correct.
Sep 24th, 2012 - 08:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Regardless people, min wages mean nothing. It is what you can buy with that wage.
Suffice to say the Falkland Islanders would be far worse off financially and by every other measure if the malvinistas ever got their corrupted grubby genocidal hands on them.
Sep 27th, 2012 - 09:22 am - Link - Report abuse 024 DB
Sep 27th, 2012 - 12:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Presently in Uruguay the standard rate of IVA (VAT) is 22% though some dispensations are made for certain drugs and childrens things.
Don't forget that in the UK, VAT on electricity and gas is only 5%, but road fuels are charged the full VAT.
@27 Alexei
Sep 27th, 2012 - 07:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Suffice to say the Falkland Islanders would be far worse off financially and by every other measure if the malvinistas ever got their corrupted grubby genocidal hands on them.”
Quite right. Argentina is no example!
The Falklanders can decide what is the best policy for themselves.
In fact, “self determination” seems to have been the main theme of speeches and Internationsl relations, this week at the annual UN conference:
http://youtu.be/QKPk6CiXfpw
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