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After living and working in North America for 5 years, my brother returned to Australia. The biggest difference he immediately noticed is how employees are trea

by grecy 5y ago

After living and working in North America for 5 years, my brother returned to Australia. The biggest difference he immediately noticed is how employees are treated. When everyone has healthcare as a human right, minimum wage is $20.33/hr[1] and a single person with no kids can easily get $1440/mo[2] in welfare (even if never had a job, been out of work for a decade, etc.) the playing field is vastly different. People are not stuck with their job, and so employers know they must treat them well if they want to retain them. [1] https://squareup.com/au/en/townsquare/minimum-wage-australia https://squareup.com/au/en/townsquare/minimum-wage-australia [2] https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/jobseeker-payment/how-much-you-can-get https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/ce...

walrus01 5y ago
Meanwhile, as a Canadian, if you try to bring this topic up with certain Americans in certain locations, expect to get treated as if you're the literal reincarnation of Karl Marx.
- grecy 5y ago
  And after living in the USA myself, I can see the other side of the coin too, and I understand why some people will fight extraordinarily hard to keep the status quo. Keeping the workers "engaged" certainly helps the economy, and it helps the asset owners get obscenely rich beyond belief. After all, if Walmart had to pay all their employees in the USA a minimum of $20/hr the Walton family would probably only be worth a few tens of billions, instead of $235 billion. In countries like Australia and Canada good living conditions for all is more important than obscene riches for a few. The USA just flips that around.
softveda 5y ago
TBH Australia is VHCOL country and the minimum wage makes it survivable but you will struggle to say buy a median priced property. The free healthcare is partially true as well. But worse is if you lose job the unemployment benefit called jobSeeker is very low and poverty level. It was temporarily boosted in pandemic and current lockdowns but you can't realistically live on that.
- grecy 5y ago
  > TBH Australia is VHCOL country and the minimum wage makes it survivable but you will struggle to say buy a median priced property Yes, property prices are insane in Australia, though it's clear you'll do much better in Australia on Minimum wage than you will in the USA. Working class poor, multiple jobs and all that. > The free healthcare is partially true as well. In what way? My family have lived in Oz for generations, everyone gets everything free. My brothers horribly broken leg, Mum's Stage 4 lung cancer, child birth, etc. etc. Never paid a single cent out of pocket, never had a single second stress about money for healthcare. Even when people have been without jobs that doesn't change a thing. > But worse is if you lose job the unemployment benefit called jobSeeker is very low and poverty level Of course people without jobs are not living large, but they're living.

by grecy 5y ago

walrus01 5y ago

Meanwhile, as a Canadian, if you try to bring this topic up with certain Americans in certain locations, expect to get treated as if you're the literal reincarnation of Karl Marx.

grecy 5y ago
And after living in the USA myself, I can see the other side of the coin too, and I understand why some people will fight extraordinarily hard to keep the status quo. Keeping the workers "engaged" certainly helps the economy, and it helps the asset owners get obscenely rich beyond belief. After all, if Walmart had to pay all their employees in the USA a minimum of $20/hr the Walton family would probably only be worth a few tens of billions, instead of $235 billion. In countries like Australia and Canada good living conditions for all is more important than obscene riches for a few. The USA just flips that around.

softveda 5y ago

TBH Australia is VHCOL country and the minimum wage makes it survivable but you will struggle to say buy a median priced property. The free healthcare is partially true as well. But worse is if you lose job the unemployment benefit called jobSeeker is very low and poverty level. It was temporarily boosted in pandemic and current lockdowns but you can't realistically live on that.

grecy 5y ago
> TBH Australia is VHCOL country and the minimum wage makes it survivable but you will struggle to say buy a median priced property Yes, property prices are insane in Australia, though it's clear you'll do much better in Australia on Minimum wage than you will in the USA. Working class poor, multiple jobs and all that. > The free healthcare is partially true as well. In what way? My family have lived in Oz for generations, everyone gets everything free. My brothers horribly broken leg, Mum's Stage 4 lung cancer, child birth, etc. etc. Never paid a single cent out of pocket, never had a single second stress about money for healthcare. Even when people have been without jobs that doesn't change a thing. > But worse is if you lose job the unemployment benefit called jobSeeker is very low and poverty level Of course people without jobs are not living large, but they're living.