While Australia and Luxembourg offer the highest minimum hourly wages in the world Greece lags behind providing one of the lowest legal remunerations which results into low purchasing power.
According to the German think tank Wirtschafts-und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut (WSI), Greece’s averages are way behind central European wages and closer to Balkan and Baltic countries.
The hourly minimum wage in Australia is 9.47 euros (AU 15.51), Luxembourg at 9.37 euros per hour while France offers 9.18 euros.
Greece has the lowest rate due to purchasing power with hourly rates at 3.94 euros per hour, slightly above neighboring Bulgaria which is at 3.28 euros; Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, 3.92, 3.87 and 3.60 euros, respectively while Russia sits at 1.64 euros per hour.
The financial crisis that has tormented Greece for the past years has lowered the country’s ranking to the level of chronically-ailing economies, like Brazil and Argentina mainly due to the cost of goods and commodities that sit at a central European country level.
Meanwhile, Spain has announced the largest annual increase to its minimum wage in 40 years by a whopping 22 per cent and France is to follow, as the result of the “yellow vests” riots.
Discussions in Greece to determine any minimum wage increases are to resume this month.