Australia has the highest minimum wage

[Teo Kok Eng]

Australia: $15 an hour
NZ: $12.75 an hour
Canada: $8 to $9 an hour
USA: $5.15 to $8.25

I did find the minimum wage is Oz shocking. $15 an hour is very high. That is one and a half times more than Canada or USA.

The minimum wage in Canada is $8 in BC (lowest) and $9 in Ontario (highest). Even, the minimum wage in NZ beats Canada/USA.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704025304575283933964515188.html
The decision raises the wage rate paid to the country's lowest paid workers to A$15 an hour.

http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/
Minimum Wage is $12.75 an hour

 

[neddy]

Australia: $15 an hour
NZ: $12.75 an hour
Canada: $8 to $9 an hour
USA: $5.15 to $8.25

I did find the minimum wage is Oz shocking. $15 an hour is very high. That is one and a half times more than Canada or USA.

The minimum wage in Canada is $8 in BC (lowest) and $9 in Ontario (highest). Even, the minimum wage in NZ beats Canada/USA.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704025304575283933964515188.html
The decision raises the wage rate paid to the country's lowest paid workers to A$15 an hour.

http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/
Minimum Wage is $12.75 an hour

Tell that to my office cleaner. She plays golf before coming to work!

 

[IWC2006]

Australia: $15 an hour
NZ: $12.75 an hour
Canada: $8 to $9 an hour
USA: $5.15 to $8.25

I did find the minimum wage is Oz shocking. $15 an hour is very high. That is one and a half times more than Canada or USA.

The minimum wage in Canada is $8 in BC (lowest) and $9 in Ontario (highest). Even, the minimum wage in NZ beats Canada/USA.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704025304575283933964515188.html
The decision raises the wage rate paid to the country's lowest paid workers to A$15 an hour.

http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/
Minimum Wage is $12.75 an hour

Thats good and flip side of this strategy.

with high minimum wage, social status and class system are less apparent. this also reduces the need to import cheaper labours to fill up jobs that noboby wants to do. The wage difference bet white and blue collars are not a lot difference in Oz, thus for migrants its actually not too bad to start as blue collar workers (eg. waiter, coles) if they can't get professional jobs. Thus everyone is happy , workers are still smiling and greeting when servicing you. The cons are the service is more expensive to run a business and; you'll find a lot of retail stores in Oz are understaff with long queue of customers waiting for service because of expensive wages to hire additional staff.

In America, waiters got to work hard for their tips thus offering superior customer service; but in the retail line where there are no tips you'll find a lot of unhappy and bad service staff. Many of them are blacks and Mexicans, viets, phillipinos, south americans. However with lower wages, biz can hire more staff thus servicing more customers.

In Oz, many SME are family run biz or one-man show to save staff cost. In US, u can hire cheap immigrants. So, which one is better?

 

[neddy]

Thats good and flip side of this strategy.

with high minimum wage, social status and class system are less apparent. this also reduces the need to import cheaper labours to fill up jobs that noboby wants to do. The wage difference bet white and blue collars are not a lot difference in Oz, thus for migrants its actually not too bad to start as blue collar workers (eg. waiter, coles) if they can't get professional jobs. Thus everyone is happy , workers are still smiling and greeting when servicing you. The cons are the service is more expensive to run a business and; you'll find a lot of retail stores in Oz are understaff with long queue of customers waiting for service because of expensive wages to hire additional staff.

In America, waiters got to work hard for their tips thus offering superior customer service; but in the retail line where there are no tips you'll find a lot of unhappy and bad service staff. Many of them are blacks and Mexicans, viets, phillipinos, south americans. However with lower wages, biz can hire more staff thus servicing more customers.

In Oz, many SME are family run biz or one-man show to save staff cost. In US, u can hire cheap immigrants. So, which one is better?

The problem with America is that undocumented workers are pushing down wages. This is affecting the southern states (historical reasons traced back to the Civil War). Which is why Arizona has taken harsh anti-migrant action.

Australia is lucky to have marketable export, which allows trade unions to continue to support ALP and implement "Value of Work". Otherwise, Australia will be in trouble.