The failure to anticipate the consequence of workers having no paid sick leave is one of the greatest flaws in Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
A freeze in the minimum wage would make it easier for stressed employers to hang onto their workers says a bare majority of experts surveyed by the Economic Society and The Conversation.
Workers on awards and the minimum wage will get 3%. There was a case for awarding even more.
Using a variety of statistical analyses, the authors have found no evidence of more employment in hospitality and retail because of reduced penalty rates.
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Overruling the Fair Work Commission will give Labor what it wants, at the cost of diminishing the commission.
Supporters outside the offices of the Fair Work Commission in Melbourne on Friday, June 1, 2018 after it lifted the minimum wage by 3.5%
JOE CASTRO/AAP
Granting low-wage workers a “living wage” instead of a minimum wage is far from costless, and there are much better ways of helping people genuinely in need.
Market forces are unlikely to lift wage growth higher without help.
That the Fair Work Ombudsman brought a case against Foodora suggests its workers are most likely to be classified as employees. This could dissuade other platforms from offering similar benefits.
Many gig workers are classified as independent contractors.
AAP
Many gig workers are classified as independent contractors, leaving them without minimum wages and other workplace protections. Creating a new category of worker could fix that.
Wages are low among hospitality workers, who are disproportionately female.
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In a recorded phone call to voters, Labor leader Bill Shorten said that “cuts to penalty rates will rip off 700,000 workers”. Is that true?
The Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut Sunday penalty rates is expected to reduce the income of hundreds of thousands of Australians. But how do we calculate that?
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation e Lucinda Beaman, The Conversation
Q&A between the University of Melbourne’s Joshua Healy and The McKell Institute’s Edward Cavanough about methodologies for estimating the impact of the proposed Sunday penalty rate cuts.
Yes, it makes the world go ‘round.
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The insistence by the Fair Work Commission that the government make a submission on penalty rates was not about their position, but a call on the government to take some of the responsibility itself.
A Canberra barista makes coffee. Many low-paid workers will be affected by the Fair Work Commission’s decision on penalty rates.
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