The residents of the canton of Geneva (Switzerland) voted in a referendum on September 27, to pronounce in favor of a minimum wage of 23 Swiss francs per hour (25 dollars), equivalent to about 4,450 dollars per month, thus reaching the highest monthly salary in the world.
About 58% of voters supported the new measure, which will take effect in mid-October and will benefit 30,000 employees in the canton. Michel Charrat, president of Groupement Transfrontalier Européen, an independent organization that supports workers on the French-Swiss border, called the result of the vote a “mark of solidarity” with the city’s poor, considered one of the best places in the world to live.
The Pandemic as an eye-opener
“COVID-19 has shown that a certain sector of the Swiss population cannot live in Geneva,” Charrat told explaining that the more than 4,000 Swiss francs are “the minimum to avoid falling below the poverty line”.
According to Swiss media, the Coronavirus Pandemic gave a decisive boost to this initiative, which had been rejected by the Genevans in two previous consultations, in 2011 and 2014.
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