Geneva to increase minimum wage to $25 per hour

Workers in Geneva will have the highest minimum wage in the world after a new voter initiative goes into effect, Swiss officials said.

According to CNN, the Swiss government allows voters to "introduce popular initiatives” and collect signatures to demonstrate support for proposed legislation.

About 58% of voters in the canton of Geneva supported a minimum wage increase to 23 Swiss francs, or about $25, an hour.

The initiative, backed by a number of labor unions, is aimed at “fighting poverty, favoring social integration and contributing to the respect of human dignity” that will “directly benefit 30,000 workers, two-thirds of whom are women," according to advocate organizations.

This isn’t the first time voters have pushed for a higher minimum wage. Citizens championed for it on ballots in 2011 and 2014.

This year, as the coronavirus pandemic shifted working conditions and job opportunities in Geneva, the initiative gained even more steam.

“On two occasions in the past, initiatives to set a mandatory minimum wage in Geneva had been submitted to the population and rejected,” Geneva State Counselor Mauro Poggia told CNN. “On 27 September, a new vote on this subject was finally accepted, for a salary of 23 Swiss Francs per hour, or slightly more than 4,000 Swiss Francs per month ($4,347) for an activity of 41 hours per week.”

Poggia leads the Department of Security, Labor and Health for Geneva.

Switzerland, as a country, does not have a national minimum wage law. In the U.S., the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, although some cities, including New York City, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, have implemented minimums of $15 per hour.

Geneva is among the most expensive cities in the world. It’s new minimum wage will be implemented by the end of the year.

The European metropolitan ranks in the 10 top across numerous reports of the cities with the highest cost of living this year. Singapore, Hong Kong, Osaka and New York City are the most expensive cities in the world, according to CNN Travel and The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Read more at CNN or The Guardian.

Cox Media Group