The real minimum wage

Leading text: "The storefront at 110 Herzl in Rishon Lezion doesn't have a sign, but it is the Afikei Lapid security company, and I'm looking for Eran Ya'acobi, a family man said to be in his 30s who drives a jeep and lives in a big house in Moshav Beit Eliezrie.

The Labor Ministry is preparing to indict Ya'acobi for violations of the minimum wage law at one of his previous security companies, Hadar Bitachon in Rehovot. Thirteen of Ya'acobi's former security guards have filed complaints against him with the Labor Ministry, saying he stiffed them out of tens of thousands of shekels, promising to pay them for months on end but delivering mainly bounced checks. The Labor Ministry suspects there are many more embittered ex-workers of Ya'acobi's where those 13 came from...

The Labor Ministry's surveys show that 5 percent of salaried Israeli workers ? 125,000 people, not counting foreign workers ? get paid less than the legal minimum wage, which stands at NIS 3,335 a month. The Bank of Israel's surveys, however, say the number of Israeli victims of illegally low wages is actually two to three times higher than the Labor Ministry's estimate..."

Source: Larry Derfner. The real minimum wage. The Jerusalem Post (29 Dec 2004) [FullText]