America Should Model our "Living Wage" after Australia's Mandated $20.00 an Hour?

By Elizabeth Nelson

A friend of mine just came back from an Australian vacation, in which he mentioned that their minimum wage was just raised to $20.00 AUD an hour ($18.55 USD), which wound up costing Hiawatha $2,156.84 or $2,000 (USD dollars) a week for food and entertainment, while he was there.

Australia has a government-mandated minimum wage, and no worker in Australia can be paid less then this mandatory minimum rate of pay. Employers in Australia who fail to pay the Minimum Wage may be subject to punishment by Australia's government.

What is the Australia Minimum Wage?

Australia's Minimum Wage is the lowest amount a worker can be legally paid for his work. Most countries have a nation-wide minimum wage that all workers must be paid.

The Australian minimum wage rate is 570.00 Australian dollars per week; the minimum wage is set federally by the Fair Work Australia act. Australia's minimum wage was last changed in 1-Jul-10 .

How does Australia's minimum wage compare to the minimum wage in other countries?

Australia's yearly minimum wage is $20.00 in International Currency. International Currency is a measure of currency based on the value of the United States dollar in 2009. There are countries with a higher Minimum Wage then Australia, and Australia is in the top 0 percent of all countries based on the yearly minimum wage rate. Read more Australian minimum wage.org

What, you believe that America should follow suit and go the way of Australia and everyone would be working and happy? Not so fast, Australia's relative poverty is above OECD average and their unemployment increased as well. Oh wait, you really bought into Obama's fairy tale "we will make everyone equal with a living wage" and his paid protester's, "we can't survive on $8.25?" No, you silly goose, every action has an equal positive or negative reaction.

Relative poverty in Australia is higher than the OECD average, and one in 10 Australians say they cannot afford to buy enough food, a global report released this week has found.

The OECD’s Society At A Glance report, subtitled ‘The crisis and its aftermath’, warns governments not to be tempted to delay social reforms in the wake of the global financial crash more than five years ago.

Wait, the "global financial crash happened in 2009" that would coincide with the first mandatory minimum wage increase, would it not?

“Many of those who benefited least from growth before the crisis also bore a heavy burden in the recession,” the report says. “And today, while hope for national economies is growing, the economic prospects for far too many of our fellow citizens remain under the cloud of the recent turmoil.”

The report revealed that 14.4% of Australians live on less than half the median income – compared with the OECD average of 11.3%.

Someone really should try socialized, redistribution of wealth and making the 1% and the wealthiest in their Country carry the load of the poorest and underprivileged and let America know how it works out for them before we try it. Oh wait, they already have...it doesn't work.

The proportion of people on a pension living in poverty decreased between 2007 in 2013 as Australian public social spending rose dramatically, though the child poverty rate increased.

In a sign of belt tightening, the report found that Australians are giving less to charities, despite an increase in disposable household income. However 67% still made donations in 2013 – far more than the OECD average of 44%.

This is because as the minimum wage increased, as Hiawatha found out, the cost of goods and services went up drastically and the inexpensive luxuries people could once afford, like that McDonalds Happy Meal, were now out of their reach financially.

The report also found lingering effects from the crisis in the Australian unemployment rate, which rose rise to 5.8% in 2013 from 4.4% in 2007. In comparison, the EU unemployment rate rose from a pre-crash rate of 6.6% to 11.1%.

 “Since 2007, the number of unemployed people in OECD countries increased by one-third to reach 48m and more than one third of them have been out of work for a year,” the report said.


The CBO has already warned us that this will also be our fate, if our minimum wage increases to a "living wage." You think Australia is "faking it?" We won't see more people working but more people out of a job.

In Greece, Ireland and Spain, three of the countries hit hardest with financial troubles, the number of people living in no-income households doubled.

Australia’s fertility rate fell from 1.96 children per woman to 1.88, lower than the demographic replacement rate of 2.1. The decline was in line with OECD trends. The report also found that fertility rates have dropped after an initial increase shortly prior to the crash, suggesting falling incomes and unemployment are pushing families to delay having children. Read more Guardian

We all know the twisted truth that, thanks to Obama, people can make more on Welfare than they can working. However, instead of Obama motivating people to further their education and bettering themselves and preparing themselves for a higher paying job, by decreasing the amount of money they can make in their Welfare career, he'd rather increase the minimum wage and move more people to the Welfare State.