The Magical World Where McDonald's Pays $15 an Hour? It's Australia

[JeffHead]

Last week, fast-food workers around the United States yet again walked off the job to protest their low pay and demand a wage hike to $15 an hour, about double what many of them earn today. In doing so, they added another symbolic chapter to an eight-month-old campaign of one-day strikes that, so far, has yielded lots of news coverage, but not much in terms of tangible results.

So there's a certain irony that in Australia, where the minimum wage for full-time adult workers already comes out to about $14.50 an hour, McDonald's staffers were busy scoring an actual raise. On July 24, the country's Fair Work Commission approved a new labor agreement between the company and its employees guaranteeing them up to a up to a 15 percent pay increase by 2017.

And here's the kicker: Many Australian McDonald's workers were already making more than the minimum to begin with.

*snip*

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/the-magical-world-where-mcdonalds-pays-15-an-hour-its-australia/278313/

[hedgehog]

1. and in case you're wondering, the Australian dollar is worth $0.92 US,

making that a still healthy $13.80/hr! That's if the $15 /hr isn't already converted to US currency.

[JeffHead]

2. Either way I don't hear McDonalds crying poor do you?

[Bunnahabhain]

4. That is exactly backwards

The cost of living in Australia is about 30% higher.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Australia&country2=United+States

[hedgehog]

6. So in Australia, the cost of living is 30% higher, but the pay is doubled.

I think that math benefits working people.

[Bunnahabhain]

7. If you examined the link I provided

You would see median monthly disposable income after tax is only 16% higher in Australia. 16% more income, 30% higher cost of living.

You will also see the average mortgage rate is over 50% higher than the US...

Look, Australia seems like a great place to live, I know I've thought about moving there...but it's not cheaper to live there.

[Notafraidtoo]

10. Its higher than that when..

You factor in no health insurance premiums and no student loan debts, Australia is a great country for those that are born there not so much for poor people who want to move there unless you have a trade they need then you will make double the income of someone in the US for the same job, they are a extremely pro labor society. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact you get fined when you don't vote so 98% usually do.

[Bunnahabhain]

11. That's not quite accurate on both counts

People do in fact often incur health care bills in Australia. Please look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Australia#National_health_policy Yes, there is a government universal plan but it is clearly not all inclusive and a private health insurance market also exists. Is it more comprehensive and guaranteed than healthcare in the US? Sure. But it's not "free" by any means to most people there.

And yes, there are student loan debts. Please read this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/does-australia-have-the-answer/41015

[onehandle]

8. I was looking at an old link.

Never mind.

[Bunnahabhain]

9. Done that before myself

Cheers.

[hunter]

15. Minimum wage is 16.37, austrailian dollars.

And get this:

"Casuals covered by the national minimum wage get an extra 24% ($20.30 per hour)."

http://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay/national-minimum-wage/Pages/default.aspx

[Rex]

5. McDonald's told their workers to find a second job

more or less.

[KamaAina]

12. McDonald's found a loophole. Try to contain your shock.

To start, some Australians actually make less than the adult minimum wage. The country allows lower pay for teenagers, and the labor deal McDonald's struck with its employees currently pays 16-year-olds roughly US$8-an-hour, not altogether different from what they'd make in the states. In an email, Greg Bamber, a professor at Australia's Monash University who has studied labor relations in the country's fast food industry, told me that as a result, McDonald's relies heavily on young workers in Australia. It's a specific quirk of the country's wage system. But it goes to show that even in generally high-pay countries, restaurants try to save on labor where they can.

[hunter]

16. Adults working at McDonalds is sad.

I see plenty of them here.

McDonalds ought to be a starter job, not something a single mom with teenage kids is doing.

[1-Old-Man]

13. In my experiences dealing with Australians, their costs are astronomical for mundane things.

I only know this from chatting with buyers of stuff that I have sold, either as a result of on-line forums (mostly heavy fishing gear) or from E-Bay sales (motorcycle parts mostly) but the prices they tell me they are charged at home are really out of this world. Here is an example; I sold a motorcycle seat to a guy down under for $250 + about $50 for the shipping. It was a used seat and the selling price plus shipping was about $100 more than I could go buy a new one for today if I liked. The buy told me that compared to what he'd have to pay at home for one, about twice what mine cost him, the $300 was cheap. Same thing on chatting with the buyers of some fishing reels and lures I sold to a couple of guys over a couple of years. Reels that cost me $500~600 here were well over a grand (used) for them at home.

Maybe more common goods are closer in price but at least for those couple of things I'm familiar with there sure was an amazing difference.

[Bunnahabhain]

14. Which is not to say Oz is not a great place to live

But I hate seeing myths created so people think life there is all unicorns. My wife and I are both in demand professionals and we seriously looked at moving to Sydney when I received a recruiting offer. We did our research and decided our quality of life would actually erode materially from moving there.

[1-Old-Man]

18. Oh, I agree.

Its all relative, and if they are paying well then its OK with me. I think the same should be true here, we should pay people more but we should also expect to pay more for the goods they produce and the services they provide. And I know at first glance that appears to be a balance in which there really is no advantage, but that's not true. The kicker is in efficiency improvements. That is where lifestyles improve but only if the profits derived from increased efficiency fall to those who actually do the work.

[pampango]

17. Don't you just hate it when other countries do what "can't be done"? If the right cared about

how other countries do things, it would drive them crazy. Perhaps that is why they try so hard to keep foreign "influence" away from American political discourse.