Minimal Wage Comparison (Between USA, the UK and Latvia)

I read an article about staff wages in USA for a Walmart employee, inappropriately called ‘associate’, which made me want to do a quick comparison as I was wondering how much different exactly are the wages between the three economies I follow.

So in my example I have chosen minimal hourly rates assuming it’s 40 hours per week. And I’ve shown the difference in hourly rates as well as gross and net income comparison.

• All figures are re-stated in British Pounds (GBP) and values are up to date from respective official websites.
• Rates: US: $7.25; UK: £6.31 (aged 21+); Latvia: Ls 1.203.
• Deductions (all mandatory): US: Federal Tax, Social Security; UK: Income Tax, National Insurance; :Latvia: Income Tax, Social/Health contributions.

1. The most obvious conclusions I can draw is the level of taxes levied on even the most basic salary (and that’s as stated before 0 when one’s employed full-time, 40 hours a week).
2. Another interesting figure is the contrasting difference in net wages between two developed countries and yet a person in UK would get £525 per month / £6,305 per year more than similar employee in US and that’s given the similar standard and cost of living.
3. Likewise, in Latvia net wages is only £270.61 a month / £3,247 a year less than in United States but considering the much lower cost of living it seems that the purchasing power in this example is in favour of minimal wage worker living in Latvia, not the one in US.

Another important aspect worth noting is that in the EU (so in Latvia and the UK as well) employees are guaranteed to get 4 weeks paid holidays every year where in US the state or federal law does not dictate such requirement (although it’s common to give paid or unpaid days off the more senior you get in your career).

The reason for this article was to give a ‘snapshot’ comparison and I hope someone will find this useful and insightful.

Renars

p.s. Happy Thanksgiving to all those on the other side of Atlantic from the UK!

£5pm Phone Contract (SIM Only) – Offer Expires Sunday, 10th November

I finished paying my £35/month 24-month iPhone contract in January and had since switched to £12.90 per month SIM only, 1 month rolling contract which gives me 200 min, 5,000 texts and unlimited data. This works great for me since I don’t need a new, shiny, cutting edge smartphone – my iPhone 4 with some jailbreak does almost everything the new iPhone 5S does.

But today I’ve found even better deal for SIM only contract. It’s a 12 month contract on T-Mobile for £11/month byt ou also get free £70 Amazon voucher which makes it equivalent to £5 per month plan. This plan will give me 500min, 1GB data and unimited texts plus unlimited London Underground / Tube Wi-Fi access. Click on this moneysavingexpert’s link T-Mobile and enter voucher code MSESIMO (valid only until Sunday, 10th November). This is available only to new customers, sorry T-Mobile’s existing customers.

How To Use Windows 7 For Free

This one’s kind of old but I think some night not be aware of it, so here it goes.

If you “happen to be using” free version of Microsoft Windows 7 and after six months you start getting messages stating that your Windows is not genuine, what do you do to get rid of these notifications?

Some people would go the lengths of getting specific software to do the job, but I have found much easier, quicker way.

Just run your Command Prompt (as administrator, option available when right-clicking the icon) from your Start menu. And then type “slmgr -rearm” and hit enter. Next time you restart the computer it will work like new. What this command does it resets the Windows 7 timer by 120 days. So this means you might need to do this twice a year but I’m sure it’s worth the “effort”.