Can DENMARK Have it Both Ways on Minimum Wage? 

Yes, we can have it both ways. As long as enough people are part of unions. Every country that has minimum wages has largely seen them stagnate ever since they came into effect. Also even when working at a place that is not part of a union agreement, you can still use your union for legal help dealing with breaches of your contract and law.

That is why most of us are members of a trade union. Even if we work at a place withoutan agreement, we have the knowledge and legal muscle of the uion available.

It's important to note that the unions in Denmark are (for the most part) EXTREMELY strong - and will strong arm those who try to employ people under fair wages. Ie. a restaraunteur was blocked from all forms of deliveries, because they tried to employ un-unionized employees and pay lower than livable wages. The unions collaborated to ensure that even though it was a restaurant that were doing this, the truck drivers/delivery unions chipped in and blocked all deliveries to the company, until they budged. This doesn't go for all cases - and internships are considered different (for some reason). The problem with setting a minimum wage, is that it has to be decided politically - and will be far more difficult to adjust for inflation - and it provides a lower barrier where employers can say "I am paying minimum wage" and that will easily create an entire sector living off of only that - where as Netto, Lidl and alike er competing on wages for qualified employees with slightly higher wages.

A round of applause for the Danish union workers of 1899, fighting through Hungerkrigen. Truly a mark in history for our model and a real testament to the kind of sacrifices needed to get here.

The Hospitality-sector is known to ne rotten beyond belief, even in Denmark. You may think working at Netto is thankless, but waiting, short order cooking etc... it dos'nt get much worse.

As a Dane there's no better feeling than seeing a foreigner (even though you live here) taking a genuine interest in our country. Love your content my friend!

united we bargain, divided we beg

As usual quality edutainment. Another factor that also comes into play is exchange rates, I don't know if it was when the meme was new, but the first time I saw it the exchange rate wasn't too far off, especially when you remember to factor in the vacation pay and pension contribution from the employer.

long time "lurker" on you channel . this is probably the most honest review of denmark i have seen i many years

Thank you for highlighting this. Citibank had the same problem as McD. You should look into that!

Alas, we *don't* have a minimum wage in Denmark, which I only found out about a couple of years ago. The unions still do publish guidelines to what _should_ be paid. Even USA has a minimum wage, even though it's less than what is normally considered a 'low salary' in DK. Thanks for enlightening me that my government doesn't *want* a minimum wage it in DK. I still wonder why, but perhaps I missed it? ─ Being in a union and having a salary insurance (A-kasse) is crucial as a working person in DK. Good thing unemployment is low a.t.m.

The restaurant business is attrocious here in denmark. Most of the employes are not a member of union and it makes it difficult to make any deals for them since there are so many small actors(businesses) within that sector. The salary being 25 dollars for a McDonald worker is not completely far fetched, since most people dont count their pension. I checked and McDonald gives 8% in pension, so thats about 21 dollars per hour for working in McDonald. Then you can add other bonuses, i might be wrong, but i believe they get very cheap or even free lunch etc.

Well done, on getting around the finikity points of interest. As a Dane, I love Europe, but I can't say the same about the EU. I appreciate that we are not a member of the monetary union and have quite a few exceptions to the different centralised laws. This minimum wage - thing, could well be another exception... hello from Hundested 🌸

There are also additional benefits of being In a Union, (however this differs depending on the Union). I have used my union how reading though contracts, helping me applying for jobs by proofreading though my CV/Application and providing recommendations for changes, used their legal department for questions i had, with no extra cost besides the membership fee.

6:13 The thing is in Denmark you can have an unpaid internship, while you are on social welfare, it's kind of a win win situation, the work place gets someone to do something which otherwise would not be worth paying someone to do but still needs to be done, and the person on the internship get's valuable experience and another thing to add to their CV, while the government pays for everything you need for the job, like clothes and such, while also providing you with enough money to live for. Like I did an internship in the biggest Electronic store in the country, and the government paid for 2 pairs of black pants and some black shoes, which was a part of the dress code at the store.

While it's not the best system (I think it should be a mix of labour market and that companies that are not unionised should be mandated to have some governmental control, like more workers' rights/workers' co-op), there is something powerful behind the fact that it is truly the labour movement protesters that helped get Danish economy where it is today... Not the government, not the "humble" businessmen, but the people that were not scared to get into streets, unpaid, in a syndicalist fashion. It is not some sort of big entity that has done it - it's the people themselves (a sort of "market revolution"). I truly respect that!

I have not followed this topic too much, but I do understand that its a complicated matter. I love our Unions, and i feel like they do WAY more then "just" ensure a good wage, they are really useful. I do not support the poor treatment we have of imigrants, or people comming from poor conditions working here for a year or two, and there are many.. They dont get paid well, if at all, they are treated like shit because they are either here illegally or they where transported by some company that treat the like shit. Some are even here legally and still dosent know of Unions and their rights.. My friend works in a field where there are many comming from Poland and Romania, most of them dont speak English, none of them have Unions as they would likely get fired and they dont even make a fraction of what she makes.. I dont know how a good model would look like in Denmark, but not all fields have Unions, some fields have real bad Unions, and some people cant access Unions.. People thinking we shouldnt rely on foreign work force are blind, its here, it always have been, and its not going anywhere.. You would not get your morning bread or cake without it, you wouldnt have "cheap" renovators and "black work" done without it, you would not have cleen floors and toilets in all buildings, you wouldnt have great advaces in science, finances and other fields, you wouldnt have experts teaching your kids in universities, and our society as a whole would not function without immigrants or just workers from other EU countries, sharing, contributing, helping.. And we should treat them right, however that must look like. I belive we can find a solution that connects into the system we already have, as it is not bad, but everything has to evolve at some point.

Introduction of a minimum wage may sound harmless on the face of it, but once you start diving into the statistics and the proposal itself, it starts getting complicated real quick. Roughly 900.000 employees in Denmark would likely be directly affected by the EU proposal (Unless I'm misunderstanding the proposal), since it defines the minimum wage as 60% of the "median national wage" (Henchforth abreviated MNW (Which would basically be the bottom 30% of all wage earners). Out of those 900.000 the lowest earning ones would stand to gain about 6-7000 dkk. more each month (Again assuming I'm not misunderstanding the summary I've read), which is about 30-35% more than now. The average for the group as a whole, would probably end up somewhere around 15-20%. Assuming the average increase for group would be 20%, total wages in Denmark would go up by about 6%, not accounting for unpaid labor. This is where it starts getting complicated as there are knock-on effects... Inflation is likely to increase as a result, which in turn would decrease the purchasing power of 4.9 million people in Denmark (Assuming everyone in the bottom 30% ended up at the very least breaking even with inflation). Out of those 4.9 million about 2.1 million are employees with wages above the minimum wage, while 2.8 million have no wages at all (Children, stay at home spouces/partners, unemployed, students relying on SU as well as the sick and elderly receiving pension or other social benefits). That last group technically also includes those with incomes that can't be defined as actual wages (Business owners, self-employed people and investors). As such a large amount of the population stand to experience a net negative from the introduction of a minimum wage set at about the bottom 30% of wages. Then come other knock-on effects such as increased operating expenses in companies who have these low paid workers. Profitability might become an issue for some, which in turn causes the companies to rely either on outsourcing to countries with lower wages or more automation, to bring the costs down. This in turn raises unemployment, which in turn increases the group of people experiencing a net negative. Unfortunately these people are often part of the unskilled workforce and may have significant challanges getting new employment. Other results will be that the low wage employees, who manage to keep their jobs, will suddenly have less of a wage gap to their superiors (Or highly skilled specialists) despite a distinct difference in responsibilities. This will trigger demands for higher pay amongst the mid-tiers in companies, which again will either result in more strained profit margins or reorganization. Now it's not all bad though, as over time inflation and wages will renormalize and companies will regain their profitability and some new jobs may be created for the people who were unfortunate. In the long run it'll work out, especially if the minimum wage isn't introduced as a singular reform, but rather as a general employment package, that is to make the incentive to be employed significantly more worthwhile. It could also include elements to safeguard peoples income from the eventuality of AI replacing the majority of the workforce, but that's another subject entirely. And I'm definately not against the notion of eliminating unpaid labor, but it does serve a purpose. Companies may be less inclined to take in student interns only to give them real life insight into how a workplace in the chosen field operates, as the company needs to invest resources into the intern, even without taking into account a potential wage, potentially with no benefit to the company at the end of said internship- Or companies may be less inclusive of people with severe disabilities, if they don't have a way of "testing" if the person fits into any pre-existing role in the companies or if a new role could be created for said person for the benefit of society, the intern and the company as a whole. Now of course I do wonder how a minimum wage system it would work in practice when it's based on a scaleable factor such as MNW. - By raising the bottom 30% of salaries wouldn't that just move the MNW higher up on the scale (Assuming all other wages remained the same) reducing the gap between high- and low wages? - And how often would the minimum wage have to be recalibrated in accordance to the new MNW? If only once, then what is to prevent stagnation in salaries compared to inflation? - If salaries not below the threshold remain the same, wouldn't it devalue the efforts of employees willing to take extra responsibilities, since it would eventually equalize pay for all employees regardless of function and responsibilities? - And if other wages were allowed to increase in response to keep allow for rewarding responsibility and skill, wouldn't it just create a infinite loop of exponential inflation, no longer driven by supply and demand? - What benefits an intrinsic wage gap reduction provide that aren't also achieveable through a progressive tax- and welfare model? - And what should be considered a wage when the basic legal framework in each EU country dicates vastly different base compensation packages? And within specific countries union agreements cause compensation packages to include very different things on top of that depending on role and industry? Shouldn't all of these things be streamlined first so the scaling wouldn't become extremely expensive in countries where wages are higher on average while there are additional things in the compensation packages that are also above average?

I don't know exactly what my opinion is about the minimum wage thing, but we already do have some rules, like minimum part time of and maternity leave, so you could have the law about minimum wage to fit into the system in a semilair way as those rules.

The big difference between the Nordic countries and say Italy, France and the UK, is that in the Nordics the government really stays out of labor negotiations. When workers strike against Tesla, the Nordic governments say “this is not our problem, we will not intervene”. In Italy, France and the UK the government invariably sides with corporations “because they create jobs”. In Germany, the Benelux countries, Austria and Switzerland it is somewhere in between. It is difficult to say where that comes from but I would say probably from the Nordic electoral systems that make parliaments more representative than in neighbouring countries. Big corporations have less control over the parliament than they do in other countries and so prefer to keep labor regulations out of it. Unions agree with that because it gives them a reason to be. And most citizens are good with it so the system goes on.

I am paid a salary as the CEO of a company I own, but my wage here is lower than the minimum wage proposed from the EU. I also hold a few unpaid executive board positions. A minimum wage would force me to earn more, and due to my already high income I would have to pay about 57 percent in taxes. So this is one reason I am against a minimum wage. Another more fundamental reason is that this is negotiated between strong workers unions and strong employers unions in Denmark. Both parties have strong tools like strikes and lockouts if negotiations fails. This sometimes happens, but most of the time the parties reach an agreement acceptable to both. For both parties negotiated peace is almost always better than conflict.

The unpaid work in michelin restairants is a worldwide model that has always excisted. That can't be stopped by Denmark alone (or EU for that matter). I have worked in Denmark and latin america and US. What i have learned from those countries with a federal minimum wage is, that those unqualified jobs stays at the minimum wage and will only move up if the minimum wage moves up. When i worked unqualified in denmark as a student, i would switch jobs often for higher pay because the salary organically raised in those jobs where there was a need for labor. I understand that some countries needs to put a minimum wage, but realistically it should only be put in place to start a evolution where the labor market develops itself from there.

While a legal minimum wage may be introduced with all good intentions, it also gives employers something to cling to: "see it's legal!". On the other hand, about unpaid internships... it's fair to cover the cost of commuting, companies can even get it tax free, and feeding your staff also comes with a tax deduction. That's the least you can do as a company, legal tax evasion. Then let it up to negotiations about pay, it would be unfair to offer less than SU. I'd really encourage youngsters to join the trade unions... they know what's fair and they know what's legal.

I belive the video or meme you are refering to are quite a bit old and maybe the exchange rate were more favorable to the dkk than it is now.

As a Dane I’m glad we don’t have a minimum wage, whit that most bosses would just pay that, not a livable wage

Have you gone on a very long period of holidays?

Your rent is very low in Copenhagen if it costs the same as Noma. 500USD, including the wine.

Elon Musk is currently challenging the Nordic model in Sweden and we have to keep fighting for it.

Denmark will always be a part of Europe as Europe is a continent-I don't think we can drift away to North America or other places -one can hope we won't be a member of the criminal EU gang though - the issue with a set EU minimum wage is it will be way below the union agreed min. wage in Denmark and Sweden so people are afraid more companies will find it okay to pay less as they will be backed by EU in paying that wage --- un payed internship is something you see as shown in the video at the most famous restaurants and in film studios where they take advantage of people wanting working such places on their CV, and that should be banned or at least limited to 3-4 weeks of low pay

I will.never work without being in a union 💪

👂+ 👀 = 💪

What is going on?

I opted out on unions years ago, not because of political reason, I was just dissatisfied by their performance contra the monthly pay. . Dansk Metal can suck it.

Denmark #1

Still, I guess you were more happy in the US.There is a ton of social fights to take on from where you came.

1:34 Now *YOU* are spreading false information. * You can perfectly go to the counter at place your order. Nobody is forcing you to use the app or the machine. It just so happens that most people prefer to use those. * The wage level have not changed from before or after the machines. Those two things are not related at all.

Under 18 - gets more like 12 dollars per hour

We can complain all we want to the EU, as a member of the EU, Denmark must follow the EU's laws. Should a conflict arise between EU legislation and Danish legislation, EU law takes precedence over Danish law. EU legislation takes precedence in the member states. The European Court of Justice has decided that. In fact, the Danish Parliament has today passed an act on the regulation of working hours from the EU directive. 'The Danish model' is on its way to the grave, good thing we have EP elections this year.

can we have an episode where you show off your tats :D

Ud af EU, og danne et fælles Skandinavien. 🤔🙄