And despite cuts, Dutch unemployment benefits are, on average, as much as 78% of the minimum wage, well above Europe's average of 64%.
"When people start buying property with cash, opening businesses with cash, when they have only a job that pays minimum wage, well, then you start to wonder," said Mayor Wanda Ferguson, a 65-year-old former donut shop worker.
Some retailers believe the government, in a bid to keep the electorate happy before the next election, will increase the minimum wage well above inflation, putting pressure on jobs in the retail and hospitality sectors.
The increase would take place over two stages, in October 2014 and October 2015, to allow Osborne to fight the next general election on the basis that the coalition would have increased the minimum wage well above the rate of inflation and restored the value it lost in the recession.
By increasing the minimum wage well above inflation and broadening state help to the most impoverished with a family grant programme, the Bolsa Familia, he helped some 44 million people and cemented his support among the poor.
And the authority of the government to set maximum hours and minimum wages, as well as the right of labor to bargain collectively, was established despite the vociferous opposition of American business.
4 This is the central focus of research on minimum wages as well.
This fraction is equal to one for the age categories that receive a youth minimum wage and zero across all age categories in countries without youth minimum wages as well as for the rest of the age categories for which the adult minimum wage applies in countries with youth minimum wages.
"The topic of minimum wage goes well beyond McDonald's – it affects our country's entire workforce.
I suppose it was "intellectual snobbery" that founded the union movement and legislated for a minimum wage as well.
