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The Forum > Article Comments > What is fair pay for hospitality workers? > Comments

What is fair pay for hospitality workers? : Comments

By Tanel Jan Palgi, published 16/1/2012

The real problem in the restaurant industry is the number of exploited workers paid under the table less than award rates.

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"What is fair pay for hospitality workers?"

The author did not answer his own question.

In order to justify his assumption that there is a difference between the fair rate of pay and the market rate of pay, he needs to identify the principle by which the difference between the fair rate and the market rate could be ascertained. It is no use assuming, as he does, that the "legal" rate represents the fair rate as against the market rate. This only begs the question what principle the central planning officials used in determining what is fair. Why is their estimation necessarily fairer than that of the paying public, whose valuation of restaurants' services determines the value that the entrepreneurs set on the factors of production?

The argument over the fair rate of pay is essentially a re-run of the mediaeval debate in the church about usury. The idea was that there is a difference between the market rate of interest and the fair rate of interest. After 1200 years of scholars chasing their tail, they ended by concluding there is no rationally knowable difference between the market rate and the fair rate. The market rate is the agreed rate; the "legal" rate is the coerced rate. It is the agreed rate that is fair, not the coerced rate.

Why didn't the author simply work where his pay would be higher? If the answer is, because where he worked, of all places in the world, paid him more than anywhere else considering the value of the services he was able to offer, then he has no ground for complaining that his pay was unfair. Compelling the services of restaurants to be more expensive for everyone else is certainly not fairer.
Posted by Peter Hume, Monday, 16 January 2012 8:38:44 AM
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Peter Hume is right. I cannot add to his helpful rerun of economic history (though some 55 years ago I did have to write an essay on 'the fair price of wheat'). Let me just say that of course the hospitality worker thinks he is paid too little. And of course the boss thinks she is paying too much. What else could one possibly expect? The marketplace, which is the end result of the thousands of relevant decisions made daily in that sector alone, is precisely where their disagreements reach a conclusion. Not that I expect anyone will be swayed by that argument, which is the primary point of entrenched difference between the main sides of politics today and people don’t easily change their minds.
Posted by Tombee, Monday, 16 January 2012 9:06:59 AM
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Right, so both of the previous posters are advocating employers simply breaking the law and paying lower than award wages.
Amazing the double standards when it comes to economic rationalism - ignore the law and let the market dictate. Take what you can get and keep the workers down.
That ethos seems to have created a few problems in places like the USA where the economy has crashed due to greedy people in positions of privilege exploiting their positions.
Great, timely article... its one of the great contradictions of the 'lucky country' that we are all happy to drink our latte's while workers are kept in abject poverty...
Posted by jimmy560, Monday, 16 January 2012 9:27:15 AM
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Another one. I don't get paid enough for what I want to do, or, I don't get paid enough for the only job going, that I can do.

Tanel, assuming he is an Ozzie, is a primer example of what is wrong with our higher education system.

Someone studies a subject of choice, either because it's easy to pass, or of interest to them. The public pay a fortune for this study, & what do we get? A bloke who can't get a decent well paying job, because there's not much offering in that line. How can we get prospective students to do a bit of research on the prospects of employment after graduation?

Next we get this bloke, educated at our expense, wanting us to pay more for something, so his wages can be higher. For gods sake, go learn to drive a truck!

Tanel, the bird has come home to roost. You chose what to study. If that has not led to well paid employment, that's no one else's fault but your own. Get on with it, or go get some skills that are more valued by the community.

Meanwhile, just stop winging.
Posted by Hasbeen, Monday, 16 January 2012 9:43:43 AM
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Hasbeen, in his usual ill informed style says 'go drive a truck', and what does a truckie get paid?

Peter Hume, in his usual style, blathers on as if he were a two bob philosopher.

The market rate is the legal rate, if this is to be a nation run according to the rule of law and not some halfbaked Ayn Rand-Margaret Thatcher style bear pit.

I note that the whingeing cafe owners made no comment about their high rents as being a possible source for reductions, as with the Hardly Normal and Dick Smith style of babblers when it comes to paying GST on imported junk that retailers have no idea how to sell to us.

I hope the author knows that he, and all other workers, need to keep a work diary of the actual hours they worked, and their pay slips, such as they may be, and they can then retrieve their unapid wages and penalties back six years, once they have left their thieves of bosses.

Here, as with many other areas, the trade unions have failed to unionise the industry, which has encouraged deciet and cheating.

If the Humes and Hasbeens want to eat out, they need to pay the cost and not expect their waiter to be subsidising their night out.

That would make them bludgers.
Posted by The Blue Cross, Monday, 16 January 2012 10:00:21 AM
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[Deleted for abuse.]
Posted by rpg, Monday, 16 January 2012 10:19:47 AM
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