I came to Alice Springs in late April, and secured a job at a fast-food immediately. They offered me $26/hr after super and penalties.
I find that surprising. If the government has a high minimum wage, they can require the fast-food places to pay that much, but then the jobs would be nigh impossible to get. Why are they that desperate?
That’s the base minimum wage, there’s also mandatory penalty rates (extra money for weekends, holidays, late hours ect.) and superannuation. In my case, the restaurant cut a deal with the government where they paid a higher base rate in exchange for not having to pay penalty rates. But the government is still setting the wage, not the free market.
Beats me. I wasn’t even the least qualified person; some of my coworkers could barely speak English. The Alice Springs unemployment rate was less than 3% at the time, not counting backpackers.
I suspect most of the variation comes from the aboriginal population. There are whole villages in the Northern Territory where nobody has a job and everybody lives off welfare.
Edit: Half of the territorians live in Darwin, where the unemployment rate is around 2%.
And there’s a chance to hit jackpot: a LW lurker I met in Alice Springs says she banking $1000/wk after expenses working at Lasseters. Mining and fishing jobs are also lucrative if you can get them.
I find that surprising. If the government has a high minimum wage, they can require the fast-food places to pay that much, but then the jobs would be nigh impossible to get. Why are they that desperate?
Just for reference, the minimum wage is only $15.96, so this fast food place is actually desperate for workers.
That’s the base minimum wage, there’s also mandatory penalty rates (extra money for weekends, holidays, late hours ect.) and superannuation. In my case, the restaurant cut a deal with the government where they paid a higher base rate in exchange for not having to pay penalty rates. But the government is still setting the wage, not the free market.
Beats me. I wasn’t even the least qualified person; some of my coworkers could barely speak English. The Alice Springs unemployment rate was less than 3% at the time, not counting backpackers.
This surprises me, since the NT has serious problems (e.g. the unemployment in the surrounding area is ~20%, with occasional townships at about ~8%).
Do you happen to have any insight into why Alice is such an outlier?
I suspect most of the variation comes from the aboriginal population. There are whole villages in the Northern Territory where nobody has a job and everybody lives off welfare.
Edit: Half of the territorians live in Darwin, where the unemployment rate is around 2%.
I think that question was already answered:
It’s Dutch disease.