HARI SREENIVASAN:

In Switzerland today voters rejected a plan to establish what would have been the world's highest minimum wage. The vote was approximately 3-to-1 against. Supporters said the plan would reduce income inequality. Business leaders had argued against it, saying it would make Switzerland less competitive with other nations and lead to higher unemployment.

For more about this we are joined now via Skype from Geneva, Switzerland by John Heilprin. He's the chief correspondent for the Associated Press in that country.

So, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development calculated that the minimum wage that voted down in Switzerland would have been about twice as high as the American minimum wage. So tell us about the debate that led up to today's vote.