Wages
If you’re reading this on your break at work this Easter Monday, commiserations. If you worked over the weekend, or on Good Friday, double commiserations.
For many Australians Easter is a solemn religious occasion, for others it a chance to spend four uninterrupted days with family, or to visit relatives interstate. Like Christmas Day, it is a safety valve that reduces some of the pressures of work, and allows us to focus on the deeper values that we sometimes forget in the day to day flurry of activity.
Those of you who run our public transport, or staff our emergency rooms, or the restaurants and cafes that feed the rest of us over Easter - thanks.
Continue reading "Spare a thought for those who worked this Easter" »
It was revealed this week that the Prime Minister will be paid $470,000 a year after getting a massive pay rise along with other politicians.
This is obviously an obscene amount of money to waste on the highest office in the land.
Just to put it in perspective, here’s a list of other things you could buy for $470,000…
Continue reading "Let’s add some perspective to Julia’s whopping new salary" »
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OK, we’ve been avoiding this topic because we have a very strong inkling the conversation will go only one way. But let’s get it over with. Do politicians deserve a pay rise?
To be precise, do they deserve the big fat whopping pay rises which the Remuneration Tribunal seems likely to hand down? Back benchers could get an extra $40k. Prime Minister Gillard could be up for $90k more, which would mean she out-earns US pres Barack Obama and British PM David Cameron.
Bob Brown doesn’t think it’s warranted. In an ouburst which the whole of Australia is likely to agree with for once, the Greens leader said: “Our job is not to compare ourselves with ... (the) obscene salaries of some of the big bank executives, but with what hard-working teachers or senior echelons in the defence forces, the police force, the nursing profession are getting.”
Continue reading "Friday dilemma: does pollie deserve a cracker?" »
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Russ says:
It is NOT a pay-rise. It is compensation for scrapping the travel gold pass - which I think most people agree is a good thing. The problem is, like any other job, if you scrap someone’s entitlements in one area, you are expected to compensate them for that loss. Read more »
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NESLIHAN KUROSAWA says:
Hi Punch Team, After all, politicians work on behalf of the Australian Public, so tirelessly for that reason alone they do deserve “the best of the best”!! Somehow, I feel for them & would like to say why not?? They all suffer from repetitive strain injury, by just sitting in… Read more »
One of the quirky differences any Australian notices when they go to the USA is the culture of tipping.
Lower wages mean that waiters, and some other hospitality workers, are at the mercy of patrons who decide if they get to take home enough money to pay their rent and bills.
Australia has gone down a different route, where pay is guaranteed and tips represent a bonus for workers.
Continue reading "Wage cuts would only add to retails of woe" »
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mick says:
Get real. Lower pay is all about putting more and more money into the pockets of bosses. I mean is one million dollar holiday house and one Ferrari not enough? And can you imagine that bosses will forego their (regular) 10% pa salary increase? Can you imagine that our politicians… Read more »
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stephen says:
CEO’s and Directors do not ‘own’ a Company ; they are employed by the shareholders and as such, should, by law, be as answerable to the tenets of poor management as workers are to poor procedure - and the sack. Though Directors may own lots of shares, they are responsible… Read more »
Each year the debate over the minimum wage seems to be dominated by people who’ll never have to live on it: economists, politicians, business lobbyists, and, I have to be honest, union
leaders.
We can all forget that a dollar means different things to different people. That for one of the 1.4 million Australians on a low wage an few extra dollars a week can be the money that keeps the lights on, pays the rent or buys new shoes for a fast-growing child.
Last week the ACTU lodged its minimum wage claim - $28 extra per week for a full time worker.It’s not a big ask when you think of the rise in electricity prices, fuel costs, rents and other expenses.
Continue reading "Why our poorest workers deserve an extra $28 a week" »
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The real workers says:
@ JT Thanks for your opinion, but we DID take responsibility. We had children young and decided at 27 to go back to uni. I studied media and my wife education. Your disdain for the artists of the world does you no favours as a person either. Never watched tv… Read more »
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ZSRenn says:
@ Get it rite Here is a story for you that says Interest Rates will rise it is only a matter of time as to when http://mozo.com.au/interest-rates/articles/it-s-a-case-of-when-not-if-interest-rates-rise-experts-say/800314491 Perhaps you might get it rite @ Ptom perhaps you might look at this link which gives CEO’s a $211,000 Average income. http://www.payscale.com/research/AU/Job=Chief_Executive_Officer_(CEO)/Salary… Read more »
Our national political conversation is littered with words that have lost their meaning: ‘fighting for peace’, ‘protecting our borders’, ‘truth in sentencing’, the list goes on.
When it comes to the economy – ‘productivity and flexibility’ are two more benign, if somewhat bland, words that have been abused so horribly it is now tough to remember what they originally meant.
Often I read the commentary pieces in newspapers about these issues that make grand claims about the virtues of productivity and flexibility, a panacea to every business problem, a self-evident good.
Continue reading "How weasel words erode your working rights" »
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acotrel says:
If the mining workers had a piece of the action, their own share price was at risk, would that make a difference? We never hear about ESOP these days? Read more »
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acotrel says:
Fiddy, Henry Ford paid his workers 5 times the going rate. They could then afford to buy his products! Read more »
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released what it calls a study of “estimates of personal income for small areas.” For ease however we will call it our shameless guide to class warfare and rich people’s suburbs.
According to the study - conducted between 2003-04 and 2007-08 - the North Sydney waterside suburb of Mosman has the highest average income in the country at $131,606. If a suburb with an average income like that isn’t reference point enough, the national average is $44,402.
Second are the battlers of Woollahra in East Sydney on $116,376. One begins to feel a bit dirty heading over to Hunters Hill on a mere $95,027, and then if you would actually want to be seen there you can get into North Sydney on $83,997 and Ku-ring-gai at $82,195.
Continue reading "The Punch guide to our rich suburbs and big houses" »
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Union secretary Sally McManus urged women to do starjumps, take a nap, phone their mother and undertake various other activities to show their employers and fellow sisters and brothers that they really are serious about wanting equal pay.
The thing is though, we’ve had equal pay for years!
Yes, women on average tend to earn 18% (almost a million dollars) less than men over the course of their lifetime. That 18% figure comes from an AMP.NATSEM report done a couple of years ago.
Continue reading "Counterpunch: Practical ways to raise women’s wages" »
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Hendo says:
Capitalism - One is a cost, one is a money generator. Care type of professions, although noble, do not generate money. There is little incentive to try and draw the biggest brains. Private schools on the other hand rely on big brained teachers to make their students successful so they… Read more »
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Tara says:
Who knows Davo, I will certainly suggest it to her. She should definitely do something…she is getting paid a pittance there ($35k/year) Read more »
Today rallies for Equal Pay will be held around Australia and all working women are being asked to down tools for ten minutes in support of the protest.
Why ten minutes? Well women earn on average 18 per cent less than men so ten minutes is the amount of time women work for free every hour.
The big question is what would we do with those extra ten minutes? After extensive consultation with women workers, here are ten ideas for those wanting to join our protest today.
Continue reading "10 things women can do while dreaming of equal pay" »
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Eric says:
I hear panic that female privilege might be questioned. The fact is that men work longer hours in more demanding jobs. That’s where the “pay gap” comes from. There is no pay gap between men and women who do the same work at the same level. Read more »
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Othello Cat says:
*bounces off elephant in the room* Huh? What was that? Read more »
During the 2007 election campaign, voters were led to believe via a massive scare campaign that Labor would provide wage protection.
The cruel irony is that whilst the Howard Government achieved real wage increases of over 19%, Labor’s new laws are actually leading to wage decreases.
Continue reading "No reward from the new Government’s new Award" »
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Dons Ghost says:
Well Stuart Robert isn’t talking about new employees - he is deceptively pretending existing employees will be worse off when that shouldn’t be the case. In any event new employees aren’t “worse off” because they never had the conditions to lose. Not to hard to follow is it? Read more »
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Kate says:
Spotless could make a business decision to keep the employees at their current rate of pay. The award is just the minimum they have to be paid. Spotless are being greedy corporates, trying to save a buck. Read more »
Nowhere is the disconnect between the business fraternity and the wider community greater than on the issue of executive salaries.
Forget trying to explain a $10m-plus pay packet with references to “international benchmarks” and “long-term incentives”. The public simply doesn’t accept that anyone, no matter how brilliant, is worth $190,000 a week - or 150 times the average salary.
Given this depth of anger among voters towards the occasionally obscene salaries received by our corporate leaders, the Rudd government has shown remarkable restraint on the issue.
Continue reading "On the pay divide, opinion counts as much as coin" »
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Phil says:
Tim its quite simple. If these major super funds who control the majority of shares in some companies have members voting with their feet, they may take notice. But also remember that these same execs controlling the super funds one day want to be board members so dont hold your… Read more »
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Daniel says:
No executive should be paid more than 30 times as much as the average salary earner. Anything more is excessive. Read more »
No pay rise and no relief on the mortgage. It hasn’t been a banner day for Kevin Rudd’s working families. But that’s the price of prudence.
The Reserve Bank’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged at 3 per cent was no real surprise. Not much has changed since the nine board members’ last met in June, certainly nothing to convince them that the time was right for a little extra economic stimulation.
The Fair Pay Commission’s decision to deny Australia’s 1.3 million battlers a pay rise was a little more unexpected. The ACTU argued strongly for another $21-a-week hike to the minimum wage.
Continue reading "No payrise, no rates cut, no joy for working families" »
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Jasper says:
The lowest paid would have pumped all of that payrise back into the economy, thus providing another economic stimulous package. They can’t do that now. Read more »
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Curtis Woolford says:
And guess what. In your other News Limited newspaper you celebrate there being no payrise. You Murdoch press are hypocrites. Read more »
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