Compare and contrast the minimum wage requirements of the United States with those of Ireland

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ireland, like the United States and most industrialized countries, has a national minimum wage. However, Ireland's approach to the minimum wage is very different from the approach in the United States. Ireland has different stages of minimum wage. In 2013 in the United States, the national minimum wage was $7.25 per hour, with a few exceptions for tipped workers such as waiters and waitresses. The national minimum wage in Ireland in 2007 for an experienced adult worker was €8.65 per working hour. In Ireland, you must be an experienced adult worker to receive the national minimum wage. In Ireland, anyone who is not under the age of 18, in their first two years of working after turning 18, or undergoing training covered under the specific statute is considered an experienced adult worker. A worker under the age of 18 must be paid at least €6.06 per working hour. A worker in his or her first year of employment after turning 18 must be paid at least €6.92 per working hour, and a worker in his or her second year of employment after turning 18 must be paid at least €7.79 per working hour. Ireland's minimum wage law assumes that a worker learns more and becomes more valuable with experience, and therefore rewards more experienced workers with a higher rate of pay than inexperienced workers. Although many businesses in the United States might like a minimum wage law similar to Ireland's, the size difference between the two countries makes such a step very improbable. The more complex a law is, the more complex the enforcement tends to be. Ireland has about 2 million workers, compared with more than 150 million workers in the United States. Ireland's small size allows efficient application and administration of its more complex minimum wage law.