America's federal minimum wage is a paltry $7.25/hr, made even worse, by the fact that there are notable exceptions to employers even having to pay that small amount, such as for employees who are under twenty years of age, or are classified as tipped employees, and so on. While it is true that some States have enacted minimum wage standards which are better or even substantially better than the federal minimum wage, as well as the fact that employers can on their own -- pay their employees more than the minimum wage, the nub of the matter is that a substantial amount of Americans, are compensated at a rate which is less than what is generally considered to be a living wage, of which as reported by nelp.org, we find that "Forty-two (42) percent of U.S. workers make less than $15 per hour."
In regards to other countries, and the minimum wage so paid, we read that as reported by worldpopulationreview.com, that when converted into United States dollars ,that Luxembourg's minimum wage is $13.78/hr, Australia is $12.14/hr, France is $11.66/hr, Germany is $10.87/hr, United Kingdom is $10.34/hr and our neighbors to the north, Canada is at $9.52/hr. Additionally, and of much relevancy, each one of these nations also has a far more robust and accommodative governmental social welfare program in place to be of assistance to their citizens, especially for those in need, as compared to the United States.
The bottom line is that a minimum wage as currently constructed in the United States, makes no logical sense to be as low as it is, for a number of reasons; of which the very first reason is that very few people can possibly make a wage as low as $7.25/hr, to somehow be enough money for them to actually live a reasonably decent life; in addition to the fact, that America does not have a federal mandate, that those so employed that are desirous of being full-time employees, are mandated to actually have forty hours, or more assigned to them by their employer of record each week--thereby indicative that those that make just the minimum wage have no guarantee that they will even get forty hours of work each and every week and thereby are often compelled to take on a second or even a third job in a futile hope to make ends meet.
While one wonders why there is so much discrepancy between those that have and those have not in America; the answer to such is written in the laws that permits employers to not pay their employees a living wage; in addition to social programs which are not accommodative enough for those that have little to nothing, as well as the fact that the richest of the rich, are not taxed appropriately in consideration of the wages, income, and assets that they so have.
The United States is cheap in its legal pay to a significant swath of its citizens, by virtue of the fact that it so refuses to see that its own people, that labor hard, are paid enough in compensation to have some semblance of the American dream; whereas, other first-world countries have done a far better job in doing exactly that, and thereby those countries typically have less of the poverty, frustration, and privations which are endemic within the bottom echelons of American society.
While there are more than one way to measure a given nation, in fairness though, one could make a very strong argument that how that nation treats its most vulnerable, by virtue of their living conditions, the opportunities thereof, and how much they thereby earn for a fair day's labor, is as fair of a measure as any, and by that yardstick, America falls far short of the minimum standards that a good nation should so represent.