Jay, whether or not the likes of Wollies employs these people, or they come from labor hire companies, as they do now, the fact remains that in order to continue, Wollies and others will see about an 80% increase in their costs of collecting trollies, and who is going to pay for that. More importantly, can the industry afford the increases.

Butchers are on about $23 an hour, that's trade qualified and to make a decent living they have to work 55 to 70 hours. Its very common.

Electricians are on about $40 per hour, so make the same as a butcher working 70 hours, in about 45 Hours, and rightly so as they are far more skilled.

Engineers make more like $70 per hour, doctors i'm guessing about $130 an hour.

Traffic controllers are paid about $24.

One can become a traffic controller in a few hours, mainly over the internet, whereas a butcher takes 2-3 years depending on the circumstances. You can understand why its a dying trade.

I feel minimum wages should be around $25K a year and those with families will be supported through welfare. By setting the minimum wage as high as it is, the burden of welfare is being placed on the business and that's not productive because if a business pays a dollar for labour, they will pass it on as a dollar fifty, and rightly so.

The way the minimum wage is worked out is just killing us as a nation and the sooner we realize that the sooner we can start to climb out of the rut we are in.

No doubt I will get crucified for this, but so be it, someone has to tell it how it is. If you want a decent pay packet, and you don't have skills, then you have to work longer hours, it truly is that simple.

rehctub,

"The way the minimum wage is worked out is just killing us as a nation..."

No it's not....just because you're a pessimistic whinger, it doesn't mean your construct is valid.

"They called it Super Tuesday in America, but it was the Australian economy that won the day.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics announced that its economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.0% in the fourth quarter of 2015, above the estimates of economists who predicted that the Aussie economy would be more negatively affected by the economic slowdown in China.

It also marked the 98th straight quarter that the Australian economy has avoided a recession. That’s right, Australia has gone almost 25 years without having two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the standard definition of a recession."

"....this brings the Aussie’s close to the developed-world record held by the Netherlands, whose own streak of 103 straight quarters without a recession came to a halt during the global financial crisis."

http://fortune.com/2016/03/02/australia-recession/

Poirot - Do you honestly believe the statistics put out by Governments or organizations that have a vested interest in good figures.

Your reputation just took a nosedive.

Phillip, that's all Poirot believes in, but only when it suits I might add.

I listened to a green defending the welfare wasters the other day, and she said she had not seen any evidence of welfare waste. What a joke!

Anyone who thinks we are going gang busters is simply out of touch, but hey, the easiest person to lie to has always been yourself. So go right ahead Poirot, and while your on the hunt for stats, how about you find out how much of the libs debt is through their own doing.

Philip S, rehctub,

So of I highlight the "fact" that Australia has gone almost 25 years without having two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the standard definition of a recession....you two are denying it?

Is that so?

Well, instead of warbling that you don't believe it or whatever, how about proving that statistic wrong?

You can't, of course, because it isn't wrong.

Here's the butcher saying such things, when he habitually emails top Oz economists to get the "real" statistics...that's what economists deal in, rehctub - statistics.

Here's one for your glorious LNP management.

"$200m tipped into landfill firms by government's Direct Action dubbed a 'waste'

The country's biggest operators of landfills have pocketed almost $200 million from the Abbott-Turnbull government's Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) without having to prove the funds reduced their greenhouse gas production."

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/200m-tipped-into-landfill-firms-by-governments-direct-action-dubbed-a-waste-20160628-gpu66j#ixzz4D0a4AFO2

Not forgetting the millions the govt has poured into private training colleges in its haste to destroy TAFE...you know the "colleges"? - the ones that go bust every second week after pocketing the $$$.

Poirot - Just because something is published as fact does not mean it is true, even if at the moment no-one can prove it false.

A fact long ago was the earth was flat, to say otherwise would lead to a charge of heracy and death.

There is a country Australia does a lot of trade with that publishes growth figures, that they have admitted are largely based on guesswork.

Australia's unemployment figures anyone with half a brain knows they are manipulated, but by your argument they are real and must be believed until someone can actually prove they are wrong.

By the way wasn't it Dudd or Dillard who started the emission rebate scam, the next mob just got caught in the ongoing scam

How sad to believe anyone in this day and age would believe all published statistics and figures are absolutely true.