Voters OK minimum wage for Geneva as wealth gap widens

GENEVA: Geneva voters on Sunday came out in support of introducing a minimum wage, guaranteeing every worker in one of the world’s priciest cities at least $25 an hour.

Switzerland as a whole has no minimum wage, and voters in 2014 turned down a chance to adopt one at a national level. Geneva voters themselves have twice previously rejected calls to introduce a minimum wage in the city.

But on Sunday the winds appeared to have changed as the coronavirus pandemic has deepened the wealth gap, with 58 percent of voters in the canton coming out in favour of the unions-backed initiative. The result made Geneva the third of Switzerland’s 26 cantons to set a minimum hourly earnings rate after Jura and Neuchatel.—AFP