Minimum Wage In Australia Essay

984 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Equal pay for equal work disagree

Introduction

Youth wages in Australia are scrutinised as it is suggested paying individuals incomes based on their age and not their skill level is discriminatory. From this arises the question of whether the implementation of ‘equal pay for equal work’ should be enacted in the work place. Further arguments discuss the tangible need for an increase in wage and whether it is necessary for a young persons’ future. In reality however, raising a youths’ income to that of an adults’ may lead to serious repercussions and ramifications, which may have impact on Australia’s economy. Australia’s youth today is in no great need of higher wages, as opportunity is plentiful in this vastly developed country. Youth wages provide first-time job seekers opportunity and financial reassurance but not absolute dependence from personal income. Minimum wage is an incentive to continue …show more content…

Significant global events have effected these variations, as exhibited in figure 1.
Figure 1
The real hourly earnings (per hour) have demonstrated gradual growth over the period of 1984-97. This is surprising, given that there was a decline in teenage full-time employment in these years . However, enhanced demand for part-time workers resulting from extended trading hours in retail and other service industries could be one factor elucidating this trend . Due to the decrease in full time employees, employers were more willing to pay higher hourly rates to the casuals.

It is apparent that hourly earnings negatively impacted employment , suggesting that raising the minimum wage to an even higher level put pressure on employers to retain their workers. This further advocates that if the minimum wage was to be abolished, and individuals were to be paid wages not based on their age, unemployment would come to supreme heights.

Factors that have influenced changes in youth

Show More
Related

  • The Economic Impact of Raising the Minimum Wage

    1480 Words  | 3 Pages

    The minimum wage was, as it should be, a living wage, for working men and women ... who are attempting to provide for their families, feed and clothe their children, heat their homes, [and] pay their mortgages. The cost-of-living inflation adjustment since 1981 would put the minimum wage at $4.79 today, instead of the $4.25 it will reach on April 1, 1991. That is a measure of how far we have failed the test of fairness to the working poor.” (Burkhauser 1)

    Read More

  • Why Is It Fair To Pay Teens Less Than Adults

    296 Words  | 1 Pages

    No, it is not fair to pay teens less than adults. I think this because based on what Marilyn Watkins states, “Teens often need jobs as much as any other workers. Many have to work to help support their families. Others live on their own or are trying to save money for college” (Watkins 23). Many teens such as me are independent and have to pay a lot for their expenses. Teens including myself need money just as any other adult would and if the job requires the same amount of training as the adult, there is no reason the same amount of pay should not be distributed to the teens as the adults. Another example that would support my opinion of no is, “If they’re performing the same tasks as a 20-year-old, they should earn the same amount of money” (Watkins 23).

    Read More

  • How Does the Minimum Wage Affect Poverty?

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    Understanding how the minimum wage level functions to affect poverty in a given society is crucial for informing policy in a number of important areas. Indeed, examining the link between poverty and the minimum wage is necessary for policy-makers working to establish sound economic policy as well as labour and social advocacy groups seeking to ensure the minimum wage is at a level sufficient to ensure workers can meet their most basic and fundamental needs. Readers should be concerned with the link between the minimum wage and levels of poverty because poverty is a particularly significant and impactful social issue. High rates of poverty can both negatively impact the economy, as well as contribute to a host of negative social issues. At the same time, there may be questions regarding the impacts to poverty associated with the minimum wage. Research which better clarifies this link is particularly important. For these reasons, investigating the link between the minimum wage and poverty is essential. This essay will provide a summary of two academic journal articles investigating the link between poverty and the minimum wage. Each summary will discuss the particular focus of researchers, the contribution of the study, the methodology employed by researchers, as well as their findings and conclusions. Finally, the essay will conclude with a brief commentary regarding the relevance of these articles to the larger topic, as well as their effectiveness in promoting learning.

    Read More

  • Why Raising The Minimum Wage Be Raised By John Komlos

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this article, James Dorn and David Cooper argue whether raising the federal minimum wage will help or hurt low-wage workers. James Dorn, Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Cato Institute, argues that raising the federal minimum wage would hurt low-wage workers by reducing job opportunities and raising prices. Dorn also states that the federal minimum wage is responsible for high unemployment among teenagers and minorities and lower productivity among low-wage workers. David Cooper, an analyst from the Economic Policy Institute, argues that the federal minimum wage is not a living wage and that raising the minimum wage doesn’t have a significant effect on employment. Cooper also states that eighty percent of low-wage workers are at least twenty years old and that eighty-five percent of small businesses already pay their employees more than the minimum

    Read More

  • The Impact and Implications of Minimum Wage

    1303 Words  | 3 Pages

    The minimum wage is a key economic policy tool as it can affect one’s earnings.

    Read More

  • The Benefits Of Raising The Minimum Wage

    698 Words  | 2 Pages

    Giuliano, Laura. “Minimum Wage Effects On Employment, Substitution, And The Teenage Labor Supply: Evidence From Personnel Data.” Journal Of Labor Economics 31.1 (2013): 155-194. EconLit. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

    Read More

  • Nickel And Dimed Analysis

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    When it comes to the working class, minimum wage is such a debatable topic. From about two dollars an hour waiting tables, to about seven working in retail, people are wondering why they don’t get paid more by the hour for all the work they put into their jobs day by day. Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed investigates the realities of minimum wage jobs, and with using her work and other resources, the effects physically, mentally, and financially can be determined. Also, the perspective of society in general when it comes to the peculiar topic can be evaluated.

    Read More

  • A Minimum Wage Increase Will Stimulate the Economy

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    Raising the pay for minimum wage workers will be the proper way to create effective results, yet there exists those who oppose an increase. Neal Asbury, an American entrepreneur, writes “Raising the Minimum Wage Brings Minimum Benefits” to express how a hike in wages will increase unemployment levels. The author introduces a survey done in 1992 regarding economists’ beliefs towards an increase in minimum wage, where 72 percent claim it would hurt unemployment levels (Asbury). According to this claim, more than half of economists argue that if a rise in minimum wage is to occur, unemployment will soar among the country. Businesses will be prone to lay off employees or hire fewer workers because of higher costs and will lead low-skilled workers to be jobless. An increase in pay will lea...

    Read More

  • History of Minimum Wage

    1128 Words  | 3 Pages

    Linda Gorman. "Minimum Wages." The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. 2008. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved April 24, 2014 from the World Wide Web: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/MinimumWages.html

    Read More

  • The Federal Minimum Wage: To Raise or not to Raise?

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    The current U.S. federal minimum wage for untipped workers is currently $7.25 an hour, as it has been since 2009. At this rate, a full time employee would earn an annual salary of $15,080, meaning that a family of two people, for example a single working mother with one child, working a full time minimum wage job, would sit below the federal poverty line of $15,730 for two people (2014 Poverty Guidelines). While it is true that there are tax breaks such as those for children, and the Earned Income Tax that exist to help such people living in poverty, the fact exists that the wages in the US have not kept up with inflation and the cost of living. While the value of the federal minimum wage has risen 21% since 1990, the cost of living itself has risen 67% (Gilson). Opponents are quick to argue that only unskilled workers are paid minimum wag...

    Read More

  • Minimum Wage Needs to Change

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    The United States is home to nearly 317 million people to this date, with nearly 50 percent of them working on minimum wage jobs. That’s a lot of people working long hours every day for jobs that do not or barely pay them enough to feed themselves and their families. However, the rise of minimum wage would make plenty of jobs. The current unemployment rate in the U.S is 6.7 percent; the lowest it has been since president Obama took office. Most of this 6.7 percent is made up of teenagers and the middle aged who are looking for a second job to support their families. This is a demographic that would not settle for 7.50 an hour, even for part-time jobs, and the small pay discourages other groups of new workers to stay away from those jobs. Some of thes...

    Read More

  • Equal Pay In The Workplace

    777 Words  | 2 Pages

    Studies show that men are twice as likely to work more than 40 hours a week while women were twice as more likely to only work 35 to 39 hours weekly. Studies show that women who work 40 hours earn up to 88 percent of what a man who works the same job earns. Carrie Lukas wrote a piece by the name of “A Bargain at 77 Cents To a Dollar” in which she states that she had to take a less paying job to be able to balance her work and family life. Next, Mark J. Perry and Andrew G. Biggs wrote in “The 77 Cents on the Dollar Myth About Women’s Pay” , that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that single women who have never married earned 96 percent of men’s earnings in 2012. “The supposed gap appears when marriage and children enter the picture. Child care takes mothers out of the labor market, so when they return, they have less work experience than similarly-aged males” (Duke 2). Of course, not all jobs can be flexible and those that are tend to pay less due to working hours. Women also disproportionately obtain degrees that lead to lower paying

    Read More

  • The National Minimum Wage

    1866 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 1997, after ejecting the Conservative Party at the elections, the Labour government made the introduction of a minimum wage its first priority. As a result of the National Minimum Wage Act of 1998, the Low Pay Commission (LPC) was established. This commission is an independent body composed of 9 Low Pay Commissioners representing the different social partners with people chosen amongst employees, employers or with an academic background. The comm...

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Minimum Wage

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    Minimum wage was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 when congress passed The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. He intended to help the low skill factor workers from being over worked and under paid. A country founded on capitalism, created a safety net to keep the able and willing from bottoming out. Fast-forward to the 21st century where an abundance of jobs exists, legal and illegal. Minimum wage today is used to give even the lowest of the willing and able a job that isn’t illegal. Most peer reviewed, unbiased, data (even from proponents of increasing minimum wage) suggests that a loss in jobs is inevitable. Research from Dr. Steve H. Hanke while at Johns Hopkins University had a scope of 21 different European Union countries and their respective unemployment rates versus the countries’ minimum wage laws. He found that, “the 21 European Union (EU) countries that have a minimum wage and found they had an average unemployment rate of 11.8%, about a third higher than the 7.9% average unemployment rate in the seven EU countries that have no minimum wage” which reveals an unsettling reality of minimum wage (Hanke, Cato.org). Moreover, the reality of living in a set minimum wage society is the importance of teaching our youth budgetary responsibilities. Responsibilities like saving for important things, the difference between want and need, and

    Read More

  • Essay About Working In High School

    858 Words  | 2 Pages

    Working teaches students about responsibility and also reinforces what they are leaning in school. Having a job while in high school is a catalyst for future responsible actions and thinking. Teens are accountable for work attendent, job perfromance, and customer satisfaction. The attendence is very essential in a work place. Teens will demonstrate the skills they acquire from work whenever they go to work, and it will be evaluated on their evaluation worksheet by their employers. For example, if teens have missed class, they would be mark for absence and it will later affect their grade. Being resposible in early ages is not very easy, some of them need to take time to work on what they are lacking of. Working will make teens feel more confident in life especially in their job performance. Having responsiblity while performing the task is important because teens know what they should and should not do that will help them avoid making mistake at work or it will lead them to satisfy the customers. In fact, students can use what they have been taught in class and apply it to their job skills because studying and practicing always come along way. The more the teens practices, the more they learn from work experiences. No matter how old they are, as far as student...

    Read More

More about Minimum Wage In Australia Essay

Open Document