[pingec]

5$ per hour is practically minimum wage here in Slovenia except that you also get compulsory health insurance and pension contribution on top of that. And it's not extremely hard to get a job.

I wonder why anyone would repeatedly fly to the US to work for that money. He was maybe getting or was promised something more.

Also funny how they call us an "impoverished country". In my eyes an average Joe has much better quality of life in Slovenia than in the US :). I would say the problems start if you want to me more than the average Joe.

[azernik]

They call you an impoverished country because Slavic language = Eastern Europe = poor hungry alcoholic Russians. Welcome to the US media :-P

[mastazi]

I agree regarding the ridiculous "impoverished country" thing. Slovenia's standard of living is certainly better than at least some parts of the United States. (I grew up in Italy and visited Slovenia several times).

[bardworx]

> Also funny how they call us an "impoverished country". In my eyes an average Joe has much better quality of life in Slovenia than in the US :). I would say the problems start if you want to me more than the average Joe.

Creating labels and positioning the individual who was hurt as a victim, coming from an "impoverished country" is more attractive then reporting a different ("positive") point of view.

In defense of their reporting, however, they're measuring minimum wage of Slovenia vs minimum wage in USA, which is less, with no context (that you supplied)

[pingec]

So how much higher is US minimum wage? Perhaps 100%? Would you agree with someone who earns twice as much as you to automatically call you impoverished?

I am no native speaker so I could be wrong, but I have looked up the word on Google. I believe that "impoverished" does imply context eg. [1] and is not simply a comparative word. It implies someone is really poor in a way that seriously affects his well-being, requires help from others etc. So when applied to a country, the context should of course matter.

[1] https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/impoverished

[azernik]

Only a 45% difference - $7.5 vs. €4.56.

And now that I do a lookup, it's actually very similar to the minimum wage in Wyoming and Georgia.

[jsprogrammer]

The work was done in California, where the minimum is $10 (though it was $9 at the time Lesnik was injured).

[schwarrrtz]

For me, as a native English speaker, 'impoverished' connotes a significant difference in standard of living relative to what I'm used to. So I would agree with you here - one would have to take the relative purchasing power of the wages into account before characterizing an entire country as impoverished.

[bardworx]

> So when applied to a country, the context should of course matter.

I agree with you. Even in my last sentence, I didn't refer to Slovenia as "impoverished". The author of the article used the word in the context of juxtaposition of minimum wage, incorrectly, it seems.

[laluser]

I would assume that they were lied to or deceived about the hours that they had to work given the monthly wage that was quoted in the article. I'm also guessing that since most of these workers came on visas, they probably thought that they could seek better work once they were in the US.

[Bahamut]

They promised to match the compensation upon return to Slovenia it mentions in the article.