"A1 WBarfieldsr" > wrote in message
...
> No thanks, the items I spoke of was not what I think the wealthy should
> have, the items I spoke of, is what the common person should be able to
> afford. I'm sure Grandma with her bad knees and arthritis along other
> ailments, looks forward to climbing down stair-steps and long walks to
the
> market. Don't start with, other family members going for her, not every
> grandma has other family members to run to the market every day. Still if
> they Choose to live that way, more power to them, but if they Have to
live
> that way, because they can't afford to live any other way, then that is a
> shame on the powers that keep them in poverty. I think people should live
> the way it makes them happy, but if they are forced into poverty by the
> powers that rule, then that is the shame.
> --
> William Barfieldsr
> "Douglas S. Ladden" > wrote in message
> 9.17...
> > > I just have a few things to comment here. First, having more
> > material goods does not necessarily improve your standard of living.
> > Simplicity, happiness and family are in many ways a much higher
standard
> > of living than having material goods. And going to the markets, which
> are
> > clean and regulated and have fresh food, are more than just trips to
buy
> > goods. They are also social events for the housewives and children.
You
> > confuse, because you have been taught that way, quality of life with
> > wealth. From what I have seen and experienced, wealth actually seems
to
> > lower quality of life and happiness, in most cases.
> >
> > I renew my offer to show you Mexico, so that you can learn the
> > realities and get a better understanding of what you try to speak of,
if
> > you're willing to pay for your education.
> >
> > --Douglas
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Mexico minimum wage increase
La Prensa

The Mexican government increased the minimum wage base by 10%. The increase
will bring the 1999 minimum of 34.50 pesos ($3.63) per day to 37.90 pesos
($3.99) per day. Roughly 20 percent of Mexico's work force earns the
minimum wage. Inflation currently at 12.03%.
http://pub136.ezboard.com/fcomebuild...opicID=3.topic
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> MEXICO'S MINIMUM WAGE COMMISSION APPROVES 4.5 PERCENT INCREASE IN RATE

The daily minimum wage rate for Mexico in 2003 increases to 43.65 pesos, or
about $4.27, in the nation's most industrialized regions. However, because
of depreciation in the value of the Mexican peso over the last year, the
minimum wage at the start of 2003 in U.S. dollars will be lower than it was
at the beginning of 2002, when it was $4.58 per day
The National Minimum Wage Commission approved the 4.5 percent average
increase Dec. 19, setting the rate in less industrialized areas at 40.3
pesos, or about $4 a day.

01/02/2003
http://www.apawestmichigan.org/newsletter.cfm?get=1400
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SUNS 4347 Thursday 17 December 1998

MEXICO: MINIMUM WAGE NOT ENOUGH TO BUY FOOD

Mexico, Dec 15 (IPS/Diego Cevallos) -- Despite a recent increase of 14
percent, Mexico's minimum wage is still not enough to buy food with,
according to calculations by university researchers here.

In the past 14 years, the amount of money it takes to feed a family of four
has shot up by 1,727 percent, experts from the National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM) have found, whereas the minimum wage has
increased by just 435.9 percent.

The researchers released their findings last week, on the heels of an
agreement between the government and employers to increase the national
minimum wage by 14 percent for the period December 1998 to December 1999.
The two sides agreed that sacrifices needed to be made to void fiscal
problems so it was not possible to give salary increases that were higher
than the inflation rate.

The 14-percent increase - which is not enough to buy a liter of milk - will
keep the wage index on the downward curve on which it has been since the
1980s. "The situation is dramatic for millions of workers who earn the
minimum wage," said Luis Lozano, director of the Center for
Multidisciplinary Studies of UNAM's Faculty of Economics.

Official studies show that 55 percent of workers who have social security -
less than 40 percent of the 37-million-strong potential workforce - earn
the equivalent of one to two minimum wages.

Despite the recent increase, the real minimum wage is lower than it was
just weeks ago. Due to the devaluation of the national currency, it has now
shrunk from $3.40 to $3.20 a day.

According to UNAM, Mexican workers now have salaries equivalent to 0.01
percent of what their counterparts earn in the United States. This
disparity has helped transform Mexico into a major exporter to its northern
neighbor, to which it sells more than 84 billion dollars' worth of goods
and services a year, with 40 percent coming from companies in its
export-processing zones.

The low salaries are only one indication of the precarious situation in
which Mexico's workers live. In recent years, they have also been buffeted
by repeated adjustment measures interspersed with calls for sacrifice,
Lozano told IPS.

Rogelio Martinez, director of the Center for Legal Studies at the Monterrey
Institute of Technology and Higher Studies, accuses the government of
violating the constitution on the minimum wage issue: by law, Mexico's
government is bound to guarantee its workers a minimum wage that satisfies
the material, social and cultural needs of the head of each household.

The main trade union federations, which are close to the government,
acknowledge that salaries are low but deny that they are precarious and
ought to be rejected by the population. Opposition trade unionists, a
growing minority, maintain that wages are far too low.

Still, despite the decline in wages, trade unions have never called out
workers on a general strike.

Wealth is also concentrated in just a few hands, according to figures from
the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Computer Science: 10
percent of Mexicans own 41 percent of the country's wealth, while the
poorest fifth of the nation shares 3.2 percent of its wealth.

Things are not expected to improve in 1999 for Mexico's workers, especially
since economic prospects for next year look dim, given a sharp drop in the
prices of oil, which finances about 40 percent of the state budget.
http://www.sunsonline.org/trade/proc...8/12170698.htm
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The Impact of Minimum Wages in Mexico and Colombia
in Working Papers -- Labor & Employment. Labor market policies and
institutions. from World Bank
Linda A. Bell

Abstract: Comparative data from Mexico and Colombia are used to analyze the
impact of minimum wages. In Mexico, low levels of compliance and
ineffective levels of minimum wages imply negligible employment effects. In
Colombia, where the minimum wage is closer to the average wage in the
formal sector, the minimum wage has a significant impact on employment.


There are diverging views about how minimum wages affect labor markets in
developing countries.


Advocates of minimum wages hold that they redistribute resources in a
welfare-enhancing way, and can thus reduce poverty, improve productivity,
and foster growth. Opponents, on the other hand, contend that minimum wage
interventions result in a misallocation of labor and lead to depressed
wages in the very sectors --- the rural and informal urban sectors ---
where most of the poor are found, with the effect of wasting resources and
reducing the growth rate.


Data from Colombia and Mexico for the 1980s provide an opportunity to
evaluate the impact of minimum wages. In Mexico in the 1980s, the minimum
wage fell in real terms roughly 45 percent. By 1990, Mexico's minimum wage
was about 13 percent of the average unskilled manufacturing wage.


During the same period, the minimum wage in Colombia increased at nearly
the same rate, reaching roughly 53 percent of the average unskilled wage.


Bell charts how the mandated minimum wage affected the demand for skilled
and unskilled labor in both countries during that decade. She finds:


° In Mexico, minimum wages have had virtually no effect on wages or
employment in the formal sector. The main reason: the minimum wage is not
an effective wage for most firms or workers. In the informal sector, in
turn, there is considerable noncompliance with the mandated minimum wage,
especially among part-time and female workers. As a result, significant
numbers of workers are paid at or below minimum wages.

° In Colombia, minimum wages have a much stronger impact on wages, judging
from their proximity to the average wage and both cross-section and time
series estimates. The estimates imply that the elasticity of low-paid
unskilled employment with respect to minimum wages is in the range of 2 to
12 percent.


This paper --- a product of the Poverty and Human Resources Division,
Policy Research Department --- is part of a larger effort in the department
to analyze the implications of labor market distortions. The study was
funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project
"The Impact of Labor Market Policies and Institutions on Economic
Performance" (RPO 678-46). Copies of this paper are available free from the
World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433. Please contact Sheila
Fallon, room N8-057, telephone 202-473-8009, fax 202-522-1153, Internet
address sfallon @worldbank.org (41 pages).
http://econpapers.hhs.se/paper/wopwobale/1514.htm
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Mexico sets small increase in country's meager minimum wage
ASSOCIATED PRESS December 22, 2000

Mexico City - Despite widespread dissatisfaction with low minimum wages
here, a quasi-government board granted workers an increase of only $0.25
cents per day (2.45 pesos) for 2001.

Starting Jan. 1, the lowest-paid employees - about 20 percent of Mexican
workers earn the minimum wage - will get 40.35 pesos per day, or about U.S.
dollars $4.21, a 6.5-percent increase from the current rate.

An announcer at Mexico City's AM Formato 21 radio station reacted with
shock to the decision, telling listeners to "call in, if you can think of
anything you can buy with two pesos."

The median salary *(not 'mean' or 'average') here *(Mexico City) is about
three times the minimum.

The increase was exactly in line with the government's inflation goal of
6.5 percent for 2001, meaning that, even if the government meets it's goal,
workers will see no real-term gains.

That comes on the heels of nearly two decades in which the purchasing power
of the minimum wage has steadily shrunk, losing about 75 percent of its
value since its peak in 1980.

The minimum wage level is set by a commission made up of government, labor
and business leaders. Labor leaders had earlier said they would demand a
double-digit salary hike, but apparently abandoned that position.

Workers in rural regions can be paid a sub-minimum wage of as little as
U.S. dollars $3.75 (35.85 pesos) per day under the new rate schedule.
http://www.dslextreme.com/users/surferslim/mexwage.html
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I rest my case.
--
William Barfieldsr