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.

Rank	Country	Monthly Minimum Wage, PPP-Adjusted
1	🇨🇭 Switzerland	$3,804
2	🇩🇪 Germany	$2,928
3	🇬🇧 UK	$2,902
4	🇳🇱 Netherlands	$2,876
5	🇦🇺 Australia	$2,819
6	🇧🇪 Belgium	$2,752
7	🇮🇸 Iceland	$2,730
8	🇳🇿 New Zealand	$2,673
9	🇫🇷 France	$2,465
10	🇮🇪 Ireland	$2,433
11	🇰🇷 South Korea	$2,362
12	🇸🇲 San Marino	$2,339
13	🇨🇦 Canada	$2,324
14	🇪🇸 Spain	$2,248
15	🇵🇱 Poland	$2,141
16	🇯🇵 Japan	$1,839
17	🇷🇴 Romania	$1,799
18	🇴🇲 Oman	$1,757
19	🇬🇷 Greece	$1,735
20	🇵🇹 Portugal	$1,713
21	🇮🇱 Israel	$1,630
22	🇧🇭 Bahrain	$1,590
23	🇭🇺 Hungary	$1,409
24	🇨🇿 Czechia	$1,319
25	🇺🇸 U.S.	$1,257
26	🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR	$1,186
27	🇨🇷 Costa Rica	$1,093
28	🇧🇴 Bolivia	$1,078
29	🇨🇱 Chile	$1,076
30	🇲🇾 Malaysia	$1,035
31	🇧🇸 Bahamas	$1,017
32	🇫🇯 Fiji	$1,010
33	🇩🇲 Dominica	$1,000
34	🇮🇩 Indonesia	$993
35	🇵🇾 Paraguay	$986
36	🇬🇹 Guatemala	$963
37	🇵🇦 Panama	$943
38	🇧🇿 Belize	$940
39	🇭🇳 Honduras	$929
40	🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago	$909
41	🇵🇼 Palau	$889
42	🇪🇬 Egypt	$863
43	🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina	$850
44	🇨🇴 Colombia	$843
45	🇩🇴 Dominican Republic	$826
46	🇹🇭 Thailand	$822
47	🇯🇴 Jordan	$809
48	🇲🇦 Morocco	$773
49	🇻🇨 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	$766
50	🇸🇨 Seychelles	$766
51	🇧🇾 Belarus	$766
52	🇸🇻 El Salvador	$760
53	🇲🇺 Mauritius	$753
54	🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis	$740
55	🇬🇩 Grenada	$705
56	🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda	$702
57	🇻🇳 Viet Nam	$693
58	🇯🇲 Jamaica	$670
59	🇷🇺 Russia	$662
60	🇦🇿 Azerbaijan	$654
61	🇮🇶 Iraq	$626
62	🇿🇦 South Africa	$620
63	🇬🇾 Guyana	$619
64	🇲🇽 Mexico	$599
65	🇧🇧 Barbados	$592
66	🇲🇳 Mongolia	$591
67	🇲🇻 Maldives	$587
68	🇵🇰 Pakistan	$570
69	🇦🇷 Argentina	$568
70	🇳🇮 Nicaragua	$565
71	🇧🇷 Brazil	$559
72	🇱🇾 Libya	$553
73	🇨🇳 China	$544
74	🇬🇦 Gabon	$529
75	🇵🇪 Peru	$526
76	🇨🇬 Congo	$517
77	🇹🇳 Tunisia	$513
78	🇳🇵 Nepal	$490
79	🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	$483
80	🇦🇲 Armenia	$476
81	🇩🇿 Algeria	$473
82	🇮🇷 Iran	$466
83	🇻🇺 Vanuatu	$458
84	🇼🇸 Samoa	$440
85	🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea	$425
86	🇰🇼 Kuwait	$408
87	🇵🇭 Philippines	$400
88	🇦🇫 Afghanistan	$393
89	🇧🇩 Bangladesh	$379
90	🇲🇿 Mozambique	$379
91	🇶🇦 Qatar	$363
92	🇰🇪 Kenya	$361
93	🇧🇼 Botswana	$354
94	🇱🇧 Lebanon	$344
95	🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire	$320
96	🇺🇿 Uzbekistan	$311
97	🇱🇸 Lesotho	$306
98	🇰🇮 Kiribati	$289
99	🇱🇦 Laos	$286
100	🇸🇷 Suriname	$283
101	🇨🇻 Cape Verde	$282
102	🇸🇳 Senegal	$280
103	🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea	$268
104	🇧🇯 Benin	$261
105	🇹🇱 Timor-Leste	$252
106	🇹🇩 Chad	$252
107	🇹🇯 Tajikistan	$252
108	🇳🇬 Nigeria	$245
109	🇲🇷 Mauritania	$244
110	🇹🇬 Togo	$235
111	🇮🇳 India	$233
112	🇹🇿 Tanzania	$228
113	🇧🇫 Burkina Faso	$226
114	🇦🇴 Angola	$225
115	🇸🇧 Solomon Islands	$219
116	🇰🇲 Comoros	$218
117	🇨🇲 Cameroon	$212
118	🇲🇬 Madagascar	$210
119	🇲🇱 Mali	$208
120	🇱🇰 Sri Lanka	$200
121	🇳🇪 Niger	$196
122	🇧🇹 Bhutan	$180
123	🇭🇹 Haiti	$167
124	🇬🇳 Guinea	$153
125	🇨🇫 Central African Republic	$133
126	🇸🇱 Sierra Leone	$121
127	🇬🇭 Ghana	$100
128	🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan	$91
129	🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau	$83
130	🇬🇲 Gambia	$67

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.