Minimum wage lifted to $15.00 per hour (Australia)

[depakid]

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Australia's new workplace tribunal has lifted the federal minimum wage by a surprisingly large $26 a week. Fair Work Australia announced the change to the $544 minimum wage in Melbourne today, bringing it up to $570 a week, or $15 per hour.

The large increase - which was $1 less than the Australian Council of Trade Unions claim - followed last year's decision to freeze the wages of 1.3 million low-paid workers. The decision was the first by Fair Work Australia's new minimum wage panel and will upset employers, which had wanted a much smaller increase.

Fair Work Australia President Justice Geoffrey Giudice said there had been a significant decline in real wages since March 2008.

"The forecast for 20010/11 is strong grounds to conclude that such an increase could be awarded without threatening business viability, employment growth or adding to inflation," he said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/minimum-wage-lifted-to-570-a-week-20100603-x1by.html

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The overall unemployment rate in Australia is steady at 5.4% which is high compared with regions like the Hunter, which comes in at 4.3%

[Newsjock]

1. US$12.52 at today's exchange rate

Just so the rest of y'alls don't have to look it up yourself. :)

[dencol]

3. I know many well-educated people.

Who would love a raise to $12.52, not to mention access to health care!

[tabatha]

2. Oh my, a country doing better than the US.

Wonder what their healthcare is like?

[depakid]

5. Highly regulated private insurance with a robust and universal public option

Private cover is a fraction of the cost in the US, with very small excess (deductibles) and generous drug subsidies.

[rve300]

6. I have been here for 3 years

To be honest with you, my wife and I miss the health plans we paid for in Texas.

[uncle ray]

19. people who never left the states miss the plans they had 3 years ago too.

[dencol]

20. How does that justify denying universal care?

Premium plans are wonderful when you can afford them. But that's not what the debate is about, is it?

[daleo]

22. Thanks for your "honesty". n/t

[girl gone mad]

23. Trade you.

I'm in Texas. You can come take over my premium and I'll move to Sydney and enjoy the Aussie quality of life for a while.

[Nihil]

24. From your posts downthread ...

... we can guess how you voted too ...
x(

[Gormy Cuss]

28. Would you please detail why your plans in Texas were better than your options in Australia?

Cheaper? Broader coverage? Which company was your last insurer in Texas? Was it a group policy or individual? Did your family need to use it for a serious illness or just routine care?

[rve300]

4. Oh thats right....an election coming soon.

A freeze when his party was leading in the poles and overcompensate the next year when his party is behind. Government created business cycles.

[depakid]

7. Fair Work Australia is an independent commission. Doesn't matter who's Prime Minister

The freeze last year was due to the fact that there wasn't any appreciable inflation, and the biggest global downturn since the Great Depression wasn't the brightest time to be raising wages across the board.

[rve300]

9. Oh come on.

A commission that was created by this PM, every appointment to it's board made by his cabinet minister. Can it really be called independent yet? Maybe in a few years, but not now.

[depakid]

11. It's an independent entity that replaced the Industrial Relations Commission

and it was initially set up as part of Howard's work "choices."

Also, not sure what kind of insurance you had back in Texas, but our private cover is vastly superior to anything I've come across in the states. Of course, you may be a different situation, depending on your visa. Might be a lot more expensive if you're not entitled to a Medicare card.

[rve300]

13. According to this....

http://www.federationpress.com.au/pdf/Fair_Work_Act_2009.pdf



This commission replaces everything that was put in place prior to the "0Fair Work Act of 2009"" as it was created by that act and not "Work Choices".


In Texas we had a few different private plans over a 12 year span and I would gladly pay for those plans again. Here, my wife and I do have Medicare cards but due to recent bad experiences with the public options we are now looking into private plans that will cost us more out of pocket than we paid in the States.

[depakid]

18. "more out of pocket than we paid in the States."

We ain't spring chickens, and our cover with MBF for what Americans would call a "cadillac policy" ($250.00 excess i.e deductible, for hospital admission) physio, generous non-PBS drug subsidy, naturopathy, etc. is about $100 per fortnight now- or about 2,600 per year for both of us. If we wanted more modest coverage or a higher excess, we could could pay a whole lot less than that. You might want to give 'em a call.

You're correct about the about Fair Work Australia- it replaced and consolidated the entities whose duties were modified through Work "choices": the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, the Australia Fair Pay Commission and the Workplace Authority.

It is however, an independent commission.

[Expat Sue]

29. Australian Medicare

I've been in Australia for 8 yrs and on Medicare for 4. I've never had a bad experience with the universal single payer system (Medicare) and have been amazed at the quality of care and the ease of access. My Australian Medicare is vastly superior to any of the options I had in the US.

The gap between the Medicare bulk billing price (the reimbursement that Medicare pays doctors) and what doctors charge patients has been steadily increasing since the private medicare insurance system was brought in by the previous PM Howard. Further, the government subsidy for private health insurance (a 30% tax rebate of an individual's insurance premiums) has eroded Medicare funding over time and has gradually undermined the program somewhat. Luckily, PM Rudd seems to be turning this around slowly. If the bulk billing gap is a problem, there is a safety net program to limit annual out-of-pocket expenses but you have to register for the benefit by calling Medicare. Otherwise, as other posters have mentioned, there is the parallel private insurance system that is beneficial for some depending on your health care needs.

[Quantess]

8. I wish we had 5.4% unemployment here!

Can you imagine $15 minimum wage?

[depakid]

12. Oregon's minimum wage is not at all shabby by American standards, and is indexed to inflation

The employment numbers don't look to good at the moment- though at the height of the bubble in 2006-07, they tended to hover around 5%.

Put the lies to the Chamber of Commerce's Chicken Little argument that raising the minimum wage would cause a spike in unemployment after the initiative was passed.

[caledesi]

10. All we ever hear about is how high the taxes are in other countries!

We never hear about the good things:

Universal health care (life expectancy is a lot longer than the US)
Free college
High minumumw wage
Free real education

[rve300]

15. Nothing here is free

The cost of living for my family here is much higher than back in the states.

[caledesi]

16. I know, I know...different cultures but...

Traveled in Europe. But hv friends in Canada and AUS, who like the
USA, but love their own homeland values.

They don't mind paying taxes!

[Expat Sue]

30. cost of living in Australia

Yes, initially the cost of living seems high in Australia in comparison to many cities in the US. We attribute this to the cost of employees receiving a fair living wage which takes the sting out of paying double for some items vs what we would expect in the US. I'm happy to bear increased costs for some items or services if it raises the standard of living for others, especially casual workers and those in service industries.

[Kalun D]

14. America Is No Longer The Greatest

and it's been that way for a while.

Thank Raygoon, and ALL the presidents after him,

America is a corporatocracy, the workers be damned.

[ej510]

17. Our country is full of odiots who don't want "guvmwet help".

Fuckin idiots.

[daleo]

21. Fifteen bucks an hour

North American conservatives would claim someone was rolling in dough, if they made that much.

[Regret My New Name]

25. It's more like 12.50/hr after conversion

Still, $12.50/hr is nice. I will be interesting to see how it works out. If it doesn't 'cause their economy to implode like so many say it would it here, then perhaps we can use it as an example of success.

[depakid]

27. Rates fluctuate- just a month ago, priot to the Greek crisis the Aussie was "worth" 10% more

against the US dollar- and considering the higher interest rates in Oz, will be again as risk aversion subsides.

The better way to look at it is through Purchasing Power Parity or PPP, which is about .70.

What is Purchasing Power Parity?

One of the oldest and most basic fundamental approaches to determining the “fair” exchange rate of one currency to another relies on the concept of Purchasing Power Parity. This approach says that an identical product should cost the same from one country to another, with the only difference in the price tag accounted for by the exchange rate. For example, if a pencil costs €1 in Europe and $1.20 in the US, the “fair” EURUSD exchange rate should be 1.20.

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/currency/aud_fundamentals/Australian_Dollar_US_Dollar_Exchange_1241537221573.html

Some things are included and others excluded from "the basket" of course, as they are with the CPI. For instance, things like power and cable rates are far cheaper in Australia than in the states- other things, beer (though not wine) or certain foods, petrol, cars, etc. are more expensive.

[Go2Peace]

31. Comparing product costs in Australia is like comparing to Alaska

Australia will always have higher costs for many products due to it's location and general geography. So comparing with something like PPP is not quite a fair comparison.

The flip side of those higher product costs is employment. More industries can compete when the cost of foreign goods is higher.

[jody]

26. Opportunity to see whether increasing labor costs decreases domestic production of products

and increases importation of products from nations with lower labor costs.

Economists will have an excellent data source to study various causes of out-sourcing.