It may not be surprising that garden center retailers do not operate in isolation from political, regulatory, cultural and social factors in their respective countries. The profitability of garden centers is impacted by many factors including costs (product inputs, labor, energy, etc.) and revenue (prices that garden centers charge for their products). So how do some of the common metrics of American garden centers compare with those in other countries and how do some countries compare to others? At the members meeting at the International Garden Center Congress in Denmark held in August 2015, the International Garden Center Association shared compiled metrics that were reported by the national garden center associations from each country.
As with most of agriculture, labor is often the greatest input cost for garden center businesses. The international average government-mandated minimum wage was $8.39, while the average minimum wage garden centers paid their employees was $11.29 (Table 1). The average national minimum wage ranged from $16.49 in Denmark to only $2.79 in China. The international average minimum wage was $8.76. The federal minimum wage in the United States was below average at $7.25. The average minimum wage for garden center employees was the greatest in Australia ($24.51 per hour), while China had the least at $3.23 per hour.
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