Voters back measure amid reports of growing poverty linked to Covid-19 pandemic
Geneva is to introduce a minimum wage of almost £3,500 a month, reported to be the highest in the world, after locals approved the measure in a surprise vote result sparked by reports of growing coronavirus-linked poverty in the Swiss city.
The canton’s 500,000 voters passed the minimum wage proposed by local unions and leftwing parties, after twice rejecting it in 2011 and 2014.
The minimum hourly wage will be set at just under £19.50 an hour, more than twice the rate in neighbouring France, with a guaranteed minimum monthly salary of 4,086 Swiss francs (£3,457) based on a 41-hour working week, or 49,000 Swiss francs (£41,430) a year, in one of the world’s most expensive cities to live.
France 3 television reported that the measure came after the Swiss city, whose economy depends on tourist and business visitors, had been hit particularly hard by the Covid-19 epidemic with concern about growing queues of people outside food banks.
Michel Charrat, the president of the Groupement transfrontalier européen, an independent organisation that supports those living and working across the French-Swiss border, described the vote result as a “mark of solidarity” with the city’s poor.
“Covid has shown that a certain section of the Swiss population cannot live in Geneva … 4,000 (Swiss francs) is the minimum to not fall below the poverty line and find yourself in a very difficult situation,” Charrat said. He added the measure would benefit 30,000 low-paid workers, two-thirds of them women.