One of my wife's colleagues just returned from a conference in Melbourne, Australia, where he encountered an American woman working in a souvenir shop for minimum wage: $21 per hour (AUD is currently at par with USD, but at times during the past six months has been higher). (And her health insurance premium would be peanuts: max. 2.5% of taxable income.)
Australia has not yet seen the first dip of the "double-dip" recession that the USA has experienced.
Perce
My son lives in Oz. His wife was making $15 an hour working at a popcorn stand in a mall while she attended college. That was maybe 5 years ago. Health insurance isn't an issue. But consumer goods and housing costs are high. That's what I gather from them. They visited this summer with their new twins and made a point of taking back to Oz a lot of baby clothes. One thing that's apparently expensive there. I don't know the details. They're doing fine there.
--Vic
My former boss's oldest son (a high-ranking exec for a global food conglomerate) was sent over there by the company he's working for. He and his wife have decided they're not coming back to the US. Australia is better for raising a family, better prospects for their childrens' futures.
Give it time. Australia is about where the US was back in the 50's with what amounts to a very young country with a young population and a young government. With time will come aging of all elements and the strain of growth will be added in to make what was once bright a little less so.
Minimum wage in Australia is currently $15.51 per hour or $589.30 per week, according to this:
In the UK it's 6.08 pounds.
If I'm interpreting correctly the information shown on this page:
I believe this is based on the minimum wage and the cost of a locally-purchased big mac in July 2009.
If this is correct (that a big mac could be purchased with 13 minutes of minimum-wage labor in the US) then that would peg the sandwich's current price at about $1.75. I think that's probably about 50 cents too low.
That link is for the national minimum. It's possible that each State sets its own minimum, which could be higher. If the woman had a part-time job and things are the way they used to be in Australia, she would be getting a higher rate per hour to compensate for not getting paid sick leave and holidays.
Perce
So the standard of living declines the longer a nation lasts?
Perce
I think they're already suffering from Liberal pollution of their government. ^_^
TDD
Not minimum wage, but "average" wage.
Back in the last century when I was attending college, a Whopper, fry and Coke at Burger King cost one dollar and regular gasoline cost as little as 22 cents a gallon. A computer was 4 million dollars at the time. ^_^
TDD
That's funny, since the major conservative party in Australia is called the "Liberal Party"; however, it doesn't get enough votes to form a government on its own, but has to form a coalition with an even-further-right party, the "National Party" (which used to be called the "Country Party").
Perce
Wasn't the private ownership of firearms outlawed in Australia? o_O
Typically there are multiple factors for that
1) Growth of government, regulations and attendant costs 2) Expansion of government paid services 3) Aging of population 4) Decline of birth rate etc.
Hi, Our neighbor's son went down there for cheaper education cost for medical school. Now he is practicing in Western Oz. married a local girl. He is not coming back either. Maybe brains work better down under? Their economy is in good shape due to resource industry.
It's interesting how different places have different customs.
My current squeeze taught me how to do the "Australian Kiss." It's like an American kiss, but it's "down under."
Sounds very generous. We'll never see that here.
The decision will raise the minimum wage to A$15.51 ($20.29) an hour or A$589.30 ($770.79) a week - a smaller increase than last year's decision.
Workers on modern awards will have minimum rates increased by 3.4 per cent, which will mean a weekly pay increase of at least A$19.40 ($25.37).
In recent years the tribunal had only granted a flat dollar increase, so today's 3.4 per cent rise will be a bigger boost for those on higher paid awards. The decision takes effect on July 1.
The minimum wage panel, headed by Fair Work President Justice Geoffrey Giudice, said that while natural disasters had hurt growth, "the economy performed comparatively well over the 12 months against a number of other developed countries".
You realize that the figure of ($20.29) is New Zealand dollars - not US dollars.
The median household income in Australia (2007/8) was about $67,000/year. In the US, that number was about $44,000 in 2003.
Given the minimum wage in Australia is $15.51, and in the US (using a ball-park average of about $7.50) we get this:
Hours worked at minimum wage to earn median income:
Australia: 4,320 US: 5,867
US minimum-wage numbers from here:
So this is based on household income (not individual income). Note that there are about 2080 work hours in the typical year.
============== As a reference point, the minimum wage rate in 2009 was $7.25 per hour or $15,080 for the 2080 hours in a typical work year. The minimum wage is a little more than the poverty level for the 1 person family unit and about 50% of the poverty level for a family of four (see Poverty in the United States). Annual wages of $30,160; $45,240; $75,400; $150,800 and $1.5M correspond to 2, 3, 5, 10 and 100 times minimum wage respectively.[7]
Which of you "heads" does the blood rush to ??
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