Living Wage Estimates
As of 2003, there are 122 living wage ordinances in American cities and an additional 75 under discussion. Article 23 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that " Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and for his family an existence worthy of human dignity." In addition to legislative acts, many corporations have adopted voluntary codes of conduct. The Sullivan Principles in South Africa an example of a voluntary code of conduct which state that firms should compensate workers to at least cover their basic needs.
| Country | One full-time worker (four person household) | Average number of full-time worker equivalents in country(four person household) | One full-time worker( household size varies by country) | Average number of full-time worker equivalents in each country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangladesh | 1.61 | 1.14 | 2.02 | 1.44 |
| India | 1.55 | 1.32 | 1.79 | 1.52 |
| Zimbabwe | 2.43 | 1.70 | 3.18 | 2.22 |
| Low income average | 1.86 | 1.39 | 2.33 | 1.72 |
| Armenia | 3.03 | 2.05 | 2.52 | 1.70 |
| Ecuador | 1.94 | 1.74 | 2. 23 | 2.01 |
| Egypt | 1.96 | 1.77 | 2.45 | 2.21 |
| China | 2.08 | 1.47 | 1.95 | 1.38 |
| South Africa | 3.10 | 2.60 | 3.35 | 2.81 |
| Lower Middle Income Average | 2.42 | 1.93 | 2.50 | 2.02 |
| Lithuania | 4.62 | 3.21 | 3.97 | 2.76 |
| Costa Rica | 3.68 | 3.38 | 3.90 | 3.58 |
| Upper Middle Income Average | 4.14 | 3.30 | 3.94 | 3.17 |
| United States | 13.10 | 11.00 | 13.36 | 11.23 |
| Switzerland | 16.41 | 13.23 | 14.76 | 11.91 |
| High Income Average | 14.75 | 12.10 | 14.06 | 11.57 |
In the above table, cross national comparable living wages were estimated for twelve countries and reported in local currencies and purchasing power parity(PPP). Living wage estimates for the year 2000, range from US $1.7 PPP per hour in low-income examples to approximately US$11.6 PPP per hour in high-income examples.
Read more about this topic: Living Wage
Famous quotes containing the words living, wage and/or estimates:
“Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly often attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“We live in a highly industrialized society and every member of the Black nation must be as academically and technologically developed as possible. To wage a revolution, we need competent teachers, doctors, nurses, electronics experts, chemists, biologists, physicists, political scientists, and so on and so forth. Black women sitting at home reading bedtime stories to their children are just not going to make it.”
—Frances Beale, African American feminist and civil rights activist. The Black Woman, ch. 14 (1970)
“Writing a book I have found to be like building a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials. He thinks he has enough to raise a large and stately edifice; but after he has arranged, compacted and polished, his work turns out to be a very small performance. The authour however like the builder, knows how much labour his work has cost him; and therefore estimates it at a higher rate than other people think it deserves,”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)