justin_o_guy2 wrote on 03/25/16 at 18:15:02:gizzo wrote on 03/23/16 at 22:10:52:Nah its all good. It's a lot more fun than burger flipping, has paid sick leave and 2 months annual leave paid. funnest job I ever had. i Burgers are casual and no job security at all.
You used words.
Penalty
Casual
I understood them to be commonly used in reference to work.
Not just your interpretation.
I explained my understanding of what I gathered.
You didn't help.
IMO, there is no casual work. There is minimum wage. Unskilled.
And what I did get was a burger flipper making the money that a mechanic makes. That's messed up.
Please enlighten those who live far away and have no idea.
I'm trying to understand your economy. I see higher prices.
The knee jerk reaction would be to conclude that the average person works longer to get something. But, that depends on how well paid people are. So, I'm just trying to get some ideas about how comparative the lives of the average guy is there and here.
Sorry JoG. I didn't mean to be obscure. I don't really know how it works in the States, either.
Here's a few clarifiers:
Casual: you have a job, but there's no guarantee of hours. Shifts can be any length and the boss can sack you on the spot. You only get paid for the hours you work. The upside is you don't have to give notice when you want to quit, you don't have to go if you don't want (but the boss might not want you, either) and you get higher hourly rate than permanent staff.
Permanent: You have a job where you have regular hours, more protection from cranky bosses. He can't fire you unless you really f... up. Even then he has to give several official warnings. So that's nice. plus, you get holiday and sick leave. And Long Service Leave if you stick around for 10 years. That's another 3 months off.
Part time: any hours at all
Full time: guaranteed 38 hours a week.
Penalty rates: extra money on top of your base hourly rate. ie After 7pm I get extra 15% until 6 am for working nights. On weekends I get time and a half, the whole shift (150% of my hourly rate) and double time on public holidays.
Overtime: is any work done after you've done the normal 38 hour week. It's paid at time and a half. If you do overtime on a public holiday, you only get paid the higher rate, not both.
There is a real trend to employers here preferring casual staff, because they can easily get rid of them if the dont work, or the work available slows down. Makes it much harder for the worker to plan for the future.
Most of the unskilled work, retail, hospitality, is casual and they have a high turnover of staff. Your right it does suck that a mechanic's rate is so low compared with a burger flipper but here's the thing: as you get older, so the pay rate goes up. So, you start flipping burgers at 15 on $9 an hour. Your still there at 25 and shift manager, get $20hr (most burger joint staff get the flick around 20 yo, so you see heaps of young managers). A mechanic at $20 can look to upskill himself, get a mining job or something and earn loads more. I have friends still in the trade, in the mines earning $50-$60 an hour. Plus penalty rates and overtime. So occasionally, they'll hit $100 an hour.
There is no way in hell most people here would choose to do 70 hrs a week just to get by. I do 38 at the normal job + 12 at the second job but only because I get time to sleep at the first.
Things are a lot more expensive here than in the US and the $$ is worth less as well, but with the higher pay rate it seems to be working out.
The average australian yearly income is something like $70,000 per year. So that's about $52,000 US. I don't know, is that a good or a bad income?
A new car is about 20,000 - 60,000 for something nice and a house in the suburbs, let's say $300k. Food's cheap, fuel not too bad. Motorbike are expensive.
There are poor people for sure but not epidemics of homeless living on the streets. Though our governments are doing their level best to make it so.
I have rambled long enough now. Hope some of that makes sense, JoG.
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