Lowest paid jobs in Australia

[neilmny]

Well mine is smaller than yours wayno... ....trainee draftsman in 1972 paid $610 per annum....

That's why we have minimum wage legislation! My first job ('77) paid 2.58 and hour. $96.75 a week, but my rent was only $25 so I still had beer money.

Yes and it's a good thing. Back then the wages rocketed over a very short time in the Gough days.
I can remember earning around $450 per week at some stage (post Gough) and thinking that if I could earn that a week for life I'd be set.............hmmm glad that didn't happen.

[Taurë-rana]

There are quite a few people who would be ecstatic at the thought of being paid a steady $38,000 or more a year, the many people who can only find casual work, if that. My eldest son was earning about $10.50 an hour from Dominos, casual rate. This is well below the minimum wage but somehow is legal. He (and I for the last couple of weeks) are earning more like $20 an hour picking mushrooms, but the work is not full time so the weekly wage is still not all that much.

[Clusterpod]

38k would be a nice, steady living! Something to aspire to.

[GPSGuided]

Still much higher than in the US where one will find the lowest paid jobs in one the "richest" countries.

[Strider]

or people just don't stay in them that long. Gen Y are much more likely to keep moving on in search of the mighty $$ OR a better experience OR an overseas travel opportunity.

I read somewhere recently that, on average, people will hold 6 full-time jobs within their lifetime.

[corvus]

my first job in 1986 paid $9k
i know a few hut wardens who have higher paid professions they can pick up once they've finished being hut wardens over summer.

Well mine is smaller than yours wayno... ....trainee draftsman in 1972 paid $610 per annum....
Not a Ranger but sad all the same........back then I would have liked to be a Ranger does that count?

I really doubt that PA wage claim , it equates to $11.73 or 28 cents an hour per 40 hours as it was in those days 52 week employment did you forget the last 0 to $6100.00 PA (unless you were overseas) there are lies mistakes and damned lies but statistics do win out I believe
In 1968 my annual income was $2495.00 till I turned 21 and it rose to a fantastic $ 2600.00 my rent was $17.00 a week and a beer cost 10 cents so your claim of 28 cents an hour as a trainee of anything back in 1972 is a total crock IMHO.

[neilmny]

Well my fortnightly gross was $23.50 and I was 16 years old. What it was was what it was.
Just checking back the year was 1970 actually the year I left school. I was wrong about 1972
that was when I started my apprenticeship.
Also based on your $2600.00 adult wage in the vacinity 1/4 of that would be about right at 16.

[Onestepmore]

eeek Under 16 years of age $5.87

My first job at McDonalds paid $2.54 an hour
That was in about 1981 or 82
Things haven't progressed much

Mind you, my fist job as a newly graduated veterinarinian in 1991 paid $25 250 pa. I had unlimited working hours (ie there were no restrictions as to how long your working week was, no award etc) - I worked 5.5 days a week - 8 am to 7.30 pm and 9 - 12 on Saturdays. (so 60.5 hour week IF I left on the dot of 'closing' - LOL) But if it was busy, or if there was a complicated case that came in late you just stayed on until whenever. I was on call overnight duty every Tuesday and Friday and every 2nd weekend, and on call and in treating hospitalised patients every public holiday for the first 2 years. Only got paid extra for a new after hours case IF the person paid in full etc, otherwise any shortfall was deducted from my pay. If there was a serious case I slept on the floor of the clinic, no additional pay. No mobile phone, meaning as soon as I made the phone answer message machine at work (giving my personal home phone number)I had to drive straight back home, no deviations to gym or shops etc. I had restrictions that I could not live more than 10 mins away from work. I had no social life at all, being in a different state from where I was brought up.
On top of this I had high HECS repayment fees for my 5 years - it took me almost 15 years to pay off my uni education
No wonder vets had (still have) one of the hightest suicide rates in the world, on top of the highest professional's divorce rate. There was a while there when vets left the profession in droves for other careers that were more compatible with a life. Things have improved now, with set working hours, an award, payment for on call duty and more after hours clinics to refer night work for practices in metropolitan areas. Still major problems for rural vets. Hey - after 23 years I'm still in the profession (though I'm in the minority for women who graduated when I did) AND I'm still married - to a vet!

[wayno]

i work in IT, pay rates in a lot of roles in IT have stagnated or gone backwards for years. while property prices and rents go hrough the roof... when i started out fixing IT faults i was on call seven days 18 hours a day for the first couple of years, i worked most weekends often all weekend through the night, sometimes 18 hour days. although i remember one day i was sitting on a beach in perfect weather when a customer rang up on a sunday,, now it tended to be the biggest pricks who would ring you up at these times especially late at night, and then they'd contest your bill afterwards...
anyway they asked what my rate was. it was a sunday, I was thinking what would it take to get me off the beach... i was subcontracting so i only took part of the rate. so i told them triple the normal the rate and that got rid of the client... as usual weekend callers were often tight *&^%$#@!....
i worked all over the city, and i came to hate the entire city because everywhere i went reminded me of work and i was working when all my family and friends were relaxing.... I left the city and have no desire to return to it or that lifestyle.
i remember one job i did i was basically on a hiding to nothing, everything IT on the site was falling to pieces and it was a hopeless job for one person, the client rang my boss and i was banned from their three companies...
i went to plug a cable in and the entire cabling cabinet that was fixed to the wall came away in a frank spencer moment, (google him for those too young to remember) i was installing software that ended up wrecking the machines,, 20 hours later i'd all but lost my job..... everyone blamed me and hated me... life was great... then there was the time i was a hairs breath from wiping a law firms emails when the backups werent working.. the air con failed and had to resort to a fan blowing air into the open door of a server room that was fast becoming a sauna....
my current job is pretty ho hum but, it's strictly nine to five. i get a pretty good amout of internet surfing done... so its a lot better than past gigs

[Onestepmore]

I think this is why we all enjoy bushwalking

[neilmny]

Wayno's post has me champing at the bit to blurt out various past frustrations of wearing the crap for others doings.
(I don't mind wearing the crap for my own though) But I'll bite my tongue and just say here here to OSM and I feel your pain Wayno.

[wayno]

share a bit mate...

[Clusterpod]

Ditto. Similar reasons to why I got out of IT.

[wayno]

then theres the skyrocketing price of accomodation.
a lot of people I know in auckland have had to make a decision on have kids and rent for the rest of your life or, don't have kids if you want to own a house. or stomach a horrendous mortgage and hope you stay in well paid employment long enough to pay it off... the place i live in has gone up in value at over 15% a year.... i'm at the top of my pay scale at work and they
havent adjusted the pay scales in the six years i've been there. most other jobs like mine i've seen are paying up to a third less... so many more people now are never going to own their own place unless its a cheapish apartment...

[roysta]

wonder why so many kiwis are in AUS?

exactly, I came here in 1968 and have no regrets.

[Onestepmore]

.....a lot of people I know in auckland have had to make a decision on have kids and rent for the rest of your life or, don't have kids if you want to own a house.......

We were only able to have our own house relatively late in life, only got our first new car recently etc, and we're professionals in our mid forties. Always paid full price for everything, no concessions, no childcare rebates blah blah
We agonised for ages wether to have a third child, and decided we just couldn't afford it
Lol, I have unemployed clients from the housing commission suburbs of Campbelltown who can happily have 4, 5, 6 kids - as the Govt subsidies they get are insane. They're pretty good breeders. (AND they can afford to maintain multiple numbers of large dogs)

Lol we'll be discussing sex and religon next......

[wayno]

welfare is pretty tight in nz. its existence money, but that doesnt put people off having lots of kids, then they are all in over crowded conditions with poor health... good excuse to move to aus.....

[corvus]

You all have to look forward to the Aged Pension and live on that (might add it is not very hard to do ) you will need some Super money to help out

[Rob A]

Ahh I know Why dont we all google dutch disease, buy shi t off the internet and trash any trader trying to keep employees in work.

Ps ... Kohler isnt only an upmarket brand of <strike>poo...</strike>. Ohh ok I know I know... vanity units.