Minimum Wage

[cjolley]

I was just quoting IRS stats

2003 numbers (*.xls): http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/03in05tr.xls

Line 194.

Top.............Pays

50% ------- 96.54% of taxes
25% ------- 83.88%
10% ------- 65.84%
05% ------- 54.36%
01% ------- 34.27%

...

"of taxes?" what does that mean?
Leaves out payroll tax doesn't it.

[NetSnake]

Greece. It's about 4euro/h (including holiday bonuses). But, there are not a lot of ppl that have a salary higher than the minimum and everything else besides the rents is way above european average. Cost of living in Greece (especially Athens) is very high the past 4 years :/

[Brian Ellis]

Dunno if there is an official minimum, but we pay our cleaning lady CYP 3/h, although this is over the odds for irregular work, CYP 2/h being common for unskilled work. I suspect it may be as low as CYP 1.50/h for casual farm work like fruit picking. CYP 1 = USD 2 as near as dammit, so we're talking $6, 4 and 3 respectively.

Schmo, you can't generalise about the EU, as it consists of 25 independent countries in various stages of economical development. For example, the cost of living here is <½ that of, say, Germany or the UK.

[Umfriend]

I am ignorant about the US tax system. What is the difference between Income tax (as in the numbers Doc provided) and payroll tax? How about income on investments, savings etc. What about state vs federal tax? Is there a simple introduction into this?

I do remember this quote:

If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning.

Guess who'se that is.

The numbers of the IRS that Doc linked to do suggest that 'the wealthy' pay 96.5% of all income taxes (whatever that me be precisely). These wealthy taxpayers make 86% of all income however. 50% of the nation apparantly lives of 14% of income......and the republicans wanted to lessen the tax base of the wealthy?

[cjolley]

I am ignorant about the US tax system. What is the difference between Income tax (as in the numbers Doc provided) and payroll tax? How about income on investments, savings etc. What about state vs federal tax? Is there a simple introduction into this?

I do remember this quote:
Guess who'se that is.

The numbers of the IRS that Doc linked to do suggest that 'the wealthy' pay 96.5% of all income taxes (whatever that me be precisely). These wealthy taxpayers make 86% of all income however. 50% of the nation apparantly lives of 14% of income......and the republicans wanted to lessen the tax base of the wealthy?

Simple introduction? We all wish...

The income tax and payroll tax are separate and independent.
Investment income is taxed at a lower top rate than wages.

Yes they do. They have convinced themselves that Supply and Demand equilibrium is driven by the supply side and not the demand side for self serving reasons.
So the tax structure favors the wealthy at the cost of holding the entire economy back.
It's like driving your car by flooring the gas pedal and then using the brakes to control your speed

Apparently they have dreams of the US imitating the average former Spanish colony in it's economic structure and success.

[Umfriend]

Payroll tax is for social security/medicare and income tax is to fund the federal budget?

[GT98]

Payroll tax is for social security/medicare and income tax is to fund the federal budget?

On my check its broken down into this:

Fed Taxes, Federal Funding

FICA, which help funds Socal Security and Medicare

State Taxes, State Funding

Unemployement taxes, provided by the state..though this is a fixed amount. In my state if you pay in something like 200 dollars or so for the year they stop collecting it.

Income Taxes are done at the start of the Year, taking into account how much you paid into Federal Taxes and what you can write off agaist it, such as mortgage interest, going to school, etc etc. If you have your taxes done right, you dont have to pay income taxes nor get any money out of it. I rather get some extra at the start of the year, even though its a free loan to the Goverment.

[JTD]

In Denmark the minimum wage isn't decided by law.

The different unions negotiate deals with the different lines of business/trades.
These deals normaly run for 3-4 years and include everything from pay to max. number of working hours per week to number of holidays per year.
So any business which has made a deal with a union is required to pay the minimum wage agreed with that union.
I think the lowest of these deals (which is for people working in supermarkets) is about DKK86 ($14,8).

Don't even get me started on our tax system (it's VERY difficult to explain)
Let's just say we have a very high tax rate, on the bright side we have free health insurance.

And speaking of wages and such, in Denmark most people have 6 weeks (30 working days) of holiday per year, how does that compare to other countries?

[KvHagedorn]

Having a Danish Great-Grandfather is probably too distant a relation to be considered for easy immigration there, isn't it?

[schmosef]

Dunno if there is an official minimum, but we pay our cleaning lady CYP 3/h, although this is over the odds for irregular work, CYP 2/h being common for unskilled work. I suspect it may be as low as CYP 1.50/h for casual farm work like fruit picking. CYP 1 = USD 2 as near as dammit, so we're talking $6, 4 and 3 respectively.

Schmo, you can't generalise about the EU, as it consists of 25 independent countries in various stages of economical development. For example, the cost of living here is <½ that of, say, Germany or the UK.

I pay my cleaning lady a lot more than that! A lot more... Oh well, she's worth it.

[borat]

I don't have health insurance either, and can't get it. Why? Because insurance companies are corporations and corporations are by definition only allowed to care about profit. I have a pre-existing condition that would require surgery, so I'm not qualified to be insured.

You could always come to the UK where you would get free medical attention on the NHS.
Let me tell you about my family/friends encounters with the NHS in the past 24 months.

Gran:
Went to doctor complaining of leg pain and being unable to walk (she has bad arthritis), doctor says x-ray is not needed, sends her away with some anti blood clotting medicine. In 3 weeks condition does not improve so he sends her to hospital to be treated for a thrombosis. Still no x-ray. They discharge her after several days still in pain. after 2 months the family take her to A&E and demand an x-ray. The leg was broken.

Dad:
Has been in need of a hip replacement for 3 years, doctors have put him on preliminary waiting lists and and seen him once every 6 months for the past 3 years. He has been on constant pain relief for 3 years. He finally got it operated on 2 weeks ago. As of now it seems like a sucess.

Friend 1:
Admitted to hospital needing a knee operation, has the operation which is a success but then goes on to contract MRSA, luckily it does not prove fatal but he is an athlete at the local running club and is still unable to compete due to the effects it has had on his body 8 months later.

Friend 2:
Went to doctor complaining of a lump on testicles in april this year. Doctor said dont worry its nothing abnormal. He was so worried he went to another doctor where he studies at uni, this one says its just a cyst and not a problem. Last month he paid and went for a private consultation, doctor said it was testicular cancer and arranegd an op within days. Fingers crossed it was caught in time.

Would you be happy with this service if you had paid for it?(or even if you realised that you had paid for it by throwing tax at the government for the last x years?)

National health care results in poor quality of service, some of the staff are truely excellent, but as an entity it has no motivation to work at all.

I'd welcome anyone in the USA who thinks nationalisation is the way forward to spend some time in the UK and see it in practice.

As for minimum wage, we have a big problem with it in the UK at the moment because lots of eastern european workers are now legally allowed to come here and work due to the EU. Our minimum wage is way above the average polish wage so they are much better off in the UK. Now all of the socialists who wanted the minimum wage are moaning about immigration rather than learning new skills and retraining - why? Same reason they wanted minimum wage, its easier than increasing your productivity.

If you are going to allow free labour acrooss the EU you must either harmonise the minimum wage across the EU (I'd be perfectly happy with that) or rule out the minimum wage, otherwise you are not operating a truly free labour market.

We actually have both rising employment and unemployment figures in the UK due to this migration.

[Nowhere]

Don't worry, academic year is starting soon, so large number of those people will go away... (I know from my friend that, at least in Nottingham area, there is so much people from PL right now that it's quite difficult to find a "vacation job")

Many won't, I imagine...why would they?

[dbdg]

Reading (my town) is the new capital Poland.

[Nowhere]

BWUAHAHAHA, you won't believe what's in the news here today

Simply put there are no specialists available in many areas, especially housing, but also road-buidling/etc. And not only typical workers, also engineers. Reason is simple - for the same kind of work they get several times more in old EU countries.
But that's to be expected...now the best part. The situation in road-building is so bad (PL builds, finally, serious highway system) that the companies had to employ people from other parts of EU, notably Austria and UK...but for the payment from their countries
I think this leveling of incomes will be quicker than expected, at least in some fields...

[KvHagedorn]

Yeah.. that's just so dumb. You had all this talent at home too. There should just be one wage for all EU.