Minimum wage initiative goes before the people in Valais
Published: Friday, Jan 12th 2024, 12:30
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The Valais minimum wage initiative, which was supported by a broad left-wing coalition, has been successful. 5008 signatures were collected and submitted to the State Chancellery on Friday. The initiators had one year to collect at least 4,000 signatures.
"The work of collecting signatures has gone very well and we are satisfied with the feedback from the population, which gives us hope for the further course of the fight," said Adrien d'Errico, President of the initiative committee and Co-President of the Valais Labor Party, at the signature submission.
The initiative provides for a minimum hourly wage of 22 francs, which corresponds to around 4,000 francs per month for a 42-hour week. For agriculture, a deviation of 18 francs, i.e. around 4 francs more than the current hourly wage, is envisaged in order not to jeopardize an industry that is known for its "economic vulnerability".
Concerns in French-speaking Switzerland
Five cantons in Switzerland have now introduced a minimum wage. The pioneer was the canton of Neuchâtel. The population there approved the introduction of a minimum wage of initially 20 francs back in 2011. This was three years before Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a national minimum wage initiative at the ballot box.
Since then, several cantons have introduced a minimum wage: Jura, Geneva, Ticino and Basel-Stadt. In other cantons, initiatives have been submitted, most recently in Fribourg, or signature collections are underway. Last June, the electorate decided that a communal minimum wage should apply in the city of Zurich.
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