Switzerland Has The Highest ‘Minimum Wage’ In The World

Minimum wages vary widely around the world, but comparing headline wage rates alone can obscure how much workers can actually buy with them.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, compares monthly minimum wages using 2024 data from the International Labour Organization. Figures are expressed in purchasing power parity (PPP)-adjusted U.S. dollars, making wages more comparable based on what they can buy locally.

Where no single national minimum exists, ILOSTAT uses other applicable wage floors to make comparisons across countries.

The Countries With the Highest Minimum Wages

Switzerland tops the dataset at $3,804 per month, based on a regional rather than nationwide minimum wage. Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands follow at roughly $2,900. Eight of the top 10 countries are in Europe, while Australia and New Zealand are the only two outside the region.

South Korea stands out at $2,362, the highest figure in Asia. The U.S. sits much lower at $1,257 per month, ranking 25th overall. The ILO uses the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour rather than the $10.69 average state minimum in 2024.

After adjusting for purchasing power, the U.S. federal minimum wage is less than half Germany’s, despite the U.S. having one of the highest average incomes in the world.

Minimum-wage systems aren’t identical across countries. The U.S. figure uses the federal minimum, while Canada’s figure represents the median of provincial rates. As a result, the figures should be read as standardized country comparisons rather than the wage floor faced by every worker.

Countries where wage floors are set primarily through collective bargaining, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Austria, and Italy, are shown as having no comparable data.

Why the U.S. Minimum Wage Ranks 25th

One reason for America’s position is that the federal minimum wage hasn’t increased in 17 years. It has remained at $7.25 an hour since July 2009, the longest stretch without an increase since the federal minimum wage was established.

Inflation has steadily eroded what that $7.25 paycheck can buy. To match the purchasing power of the federal minimum wage when it took effect in 2009, workers would need to earn $11.47 an hour today. In other words, its purchasing power has fallen by roughly 37% since 2009.

Many Americans earn above the federal wage floor. Thirty states and Washington, D.C., have minimum wages above $7.25, while some cities set even higher rates. Still, the long federal freeze helps explain why the U.S. sits significantly below many other high-income economies.

How Cost of Living Reshuffles the Ranking

Adjusting for local prices produces some surprising comparisons. Poland ranks 15th globally at $2,141 per month, close to Spain at $2,248 and ahead of Japan at $1,839.

In Latin America, Costa Rica leads at $1,093, just $164 below the U.S. federal minimum on a purchasing-power basis. Last year, Costa Rica raised private-sector minimum wages using a formula that considers both the cost of living and productivity growth.

These figures offer a better sense of what minimum wages can buy locally, but they don’t account for taxes or benefits. Because the adjustments are national, they can also mask large differences in housing costs between cities and regions.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic comparing minimum wages across countries and U.S. states, adjusted for living costs.