The debarcle with the qld police pay dispute shows a major flaw in our wage system, and that is, unskilled workers wages are simply to high.

Now I accept that the cost of living is ever increasing, but, when one can man a school crossing and get paid $25/hr, or, a traffic control officer earns $80/hr on a public holiday, there in lies the problem.

We have security guards on any weekend night earning much more than the highly trained police keeping our streets safe, yet,no doubt some of these guards gained there skills at some two day course.

No doubt many of these tasks are performed by skilled people, however, they have idfentified that they would have rocks in thier head to work in thier 'skilled industry' to earn less, while being under more presure than they are holding a traffic sign.

The whole problem is going to fester as when you pay the 'unskilled' worker up to $50K per year, how can you expect to retain highly trained police officers for not much more.

Perhaps we need to revamp the entire system and pay the bare minimum wage for these 'un skilled' tasks.

Now with some 85 cents out of every dollar paid in income tax going to welfare, how can we afford to pay police a decent wage moving forward, out of the 15cents left over.

Now before you all go off and hang me again for bashing the low income earner, just think about the problem at hand and the effects it will have long term, moving forward.

Are we going to see yet another charge on our power bills to prop up police wages, like we did with the ambos.

I don't understand why you hold this downward envy rehctub or why you constantly have a go at the low income earners while ignoring the excesses of higher income earners in many cases.

The problem is not that low income workers earn too much but that many at the middle and higher end earn too much.

I hate to disillusion you but security officers do not earn more than police officers - just look at the base salaries for a start. For the vast majority of security officers are employed as casuals and do not get paid for holiday leave or sick leave hence the higher loading. Security guards get paid less per hour than lower level public servants.

Police get extra paid holidays to compensate for shift work (six weeks per year) and do get paid overtime and other penalties. They also have security of employment.

Our labor government is quite happy to pay thousands of less than useful desk driving administration bureaucrats more than the police.

This is a continuing theme in all our government departments. Plenty of money to expand the slothful administration, no money for useful staff such as police, doctors, engineers & such.

Just a thought, do you think they may have survey results telling them that more desk bound bureaucrats vote labor? From what I see, it sure feels like it.

I have to agree with you on that one Hasbeen.

Putting it simplistically, there are too many navel gazers and procrastinators at the expense of the 'doing' jobs that is for sure.

Given the responsibilities of police I think they earn every penny and are usually managing as best they can with limited support from the bureacracy.

pelican, you are missing my point. I am not downing low income earners, I am simply pointing out that the bar is set to high for 'un skilled' workers and this is why we can't afford to pay police what they are worth.

Surely a highly trained police officer, one who often risks his/her life on a daily basis, is worth way more than $50K or so a year, when a traffic controler earns almost that.

The fact is, we simply can't afford to pay that. God knows they are worth it if a low skilled worker earns up to $50K a year.

In fact, it is my view that low skilled pay rates is the primary reason why we have a massive skill shortage. It's the old 'why bother' with the 'skills training' senario. I can earn good money without the skills.

rehctub I agree that many people are not paid by the value of what they do - however one might calcualte that worth - and there is often great disparity.

Often jobs that were highly unionised have benefitted on the wage front over other work and we can all think of common examples.

I agree with you that we should have some sort of scaling based on skills but in our economic system we also have the effect of niche skills being overpaid due to demand, the celebrity factor, and the funny money factor which means stock brokers make inordinate amounts of money compared to a professional who might save a life.

Why I point out your focus on low income earners - we can only pay less if those at the middle and top end also earn less which will put downward pressure on living costs and inflation. You cannot create a whole sub-section of poor just to convenience others.