World / Switzerland Swiss Voters on $25 Minimum Wage: Uh, No About three-quarters of people vote against referendum By Polly Davis Doig, Newser Staff Posted May 18, 2014 10:55 AM CDT Copied Voters cast ballots in Bern, Switzerland, Sunday, May 18, 2014. Swiss voters voted on a referendum to introduce the world’s highest minimum wage of $24.70 an hour. (AP Photo/Keystone,Peter Klaunzer) Swiss voters today considered the question of whether to institute a highest-on-planet-Earth minimum wage, and handed it back with a resounding "nope." Early returns indicate that about three-quarters of voters (76% per the BBC, 77% per the AP) voted against the measure, which would have raised minimum wage to about $24.70 and had been touted as a way to combat poverty in a pricey nation. Switzerland currently has no minimum wage, though the nation's median wage is about $37 an hour. Results are still not finalized in Bern and Zurich. (More Switzerland stories.) Report an error