Echoes of WorkChoices? The Coalition is keen to avoid any whiff of the failed policy, but some of the Productivity Commission’s recommendations have a strong flavour of it.
Cafe workers are among many that stand to lose Sunday penalty rates.
Felipe Neves/Flickr
The Productivity Commission has recommended paring back Sunday penalty rates, more consideration to economic circumstances in setting minimum wages, and a new form of statutory employment contract.
I’ve got the year 2020 on the line George. Seems to be a problem with your maths.
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This was a bombshell of a budget, signalling direct interventions in the labour market that went far beyond what most observers were expecting.
The policy goal of seeking to ensure children benefit from increasing community living standards has been shattered.
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Despite consistent but slight rises in the minimum wage, successive governments have dropped the ball on providing adequate support to low income working families.
Hotel workers cheered after LA approved a measure to lift the minimum wage.
Reuters
Walmart’s promised wage hike will help half a million of its workers make a living, but it really just shows how much America’s working class struggles.
Can people who work weekends really choose not to?
AAP/Robert McGrath
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott recently commented that if employees “don’t want to work on a weekend, fair enough, don’t work on a weekend … But if you do want to work on a weekend — and lots of…
President Barack Obama, in his annual address to the country last week, stressed the importance of keeping “the dream of homeownership alive for future generations of Americans.” One of the main ways he…
Protestors have been rallying for a “living wage” across the country in recent years, including at this one last month in Washington.
Reuters
A noxious combination of falling wages, income inequality at its highest since the 1920s and a growing low-wage sector has caused the ranks of the working poor to swell to more than 47 million. That’s…
How many Big Macs can you buy from one hour’s work?
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A recent internet meme making the rounds on Facebook compares minimum wages and the prices of Big Macs in the United States and Australia. The minimum wage is more than double in Australia (US$16 per hour…
Guilty of having a ‘Victorian’ work culture?
Rui Vieira/PA Wire
No company wants to be singled out for having “Victorian” work practices, as Sports Direct has been. Despite the poisonous reputation of zero hours contracts, employers continue to argue they need them…
In the UK, according to the Living Wage Foundation, some 1,000 firms have pledged to offer a living wage, including household names like RBS, ITV and SSE. Earlier this week the annual rate increase was…
Poverty is about more than just the living wage.
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The living wage won’t eradicate poverty in the UK. It may seem churlish to make the point as Living Wage Week draws to a close, but it’s a point well worth making. Don’t get me wrong, the living wage campaign…