How to make Colombians richer? Drop the minimum wage
http://colombiareports.com/opinion/matthew-helm/12904-colombias-minimum-wage-is-too-high.html At COP515,000 pesos per month or roughly $278, the Colombian minimum wage is the second highest in all of Latin America in terms of GDP per capita. At first glance, a high minimum wage may seem like a good thing, and many might say that Colombia is looking out for its workers by increasing its minimum wage year after year. However, a high minimum wage might not in fact be the best policy for the welfare of Colombia’s workers. Fedesarrollo director Roberto Steiner has warned the government about the drastic increases in the minimum wage that Colombia has seen over the past 11 years, reminding us that the minimum wage has increased 30% more than inflation over that time period. This is very bad news for those unemployed workers who made up 10.6% of the population in September of 2010, according to DANE statistics, because employers are much less likely to hire as their input costs increase. Fe...