tonight i was watching the tube on USA wages. bar tender bit over $2 an hour plus tips -Wilmar on $9 and a security guard $10 a hour.
not too long ago i thought how much cheaper good are in the good old USA compered to prices in oz but now i can truly say - when it comes to wages etc you lot surely get the rough end of the stick.
I'd hate to think what wage I'd be paid if i hired you out a kids birthday jumping castle - but down under I charge $100 an hour - min 4 hours plus travelling expenses and looking at the above wage index -my chances of that figure in the USA would be sweet ---- all
i think you lot truly deserve a good deal on your bikes and cars etc etc and in oz we should be grateful for what we have. it most certainly opened my eyes and i still find it very hard to believe.
Our economy IS in the tank, but I wouldn't draw any conclusions from these three (low) random samples. The documentary may also have had a political agenda it wanted to push (as almost ALL cable TV does now).
Bartenders & food service people work for tips & their hourly wage has always been low. The other two jobs have also always just been a hair above minimum wage.
Our hourly wage right now runs from $13.56 an hour to $35.31 per hour using 20 different non-farm job areas. This survey does not include minimum wage jobs & I didn't take the time to find out why.
We have millions of people now who have lost high paying jobs over the past 5 years & now can only get low paying jobs. Business will not hire because of the political atmosphere. Trillions of dollars of value has been lost from the economy.
When you get into salaried jobs the average is probably way higher than the above survey. I was making $35K a year ($17 an hour, nowhere near that top number) when I retired in 1995 & that was plenty for me + cost of living was way lower then than now. Milk, like everything else, has doubled. It's $8 a gallon now & the only thing making more money now is the government.
There has been no improvement in the jobs or or any attempt to improve the business atmosphere here in the past 5 years. In fact it's way worse. The 40 hour week is dead.
You would easily get $100 an hour for your birthday party job here. People spend ridiculous amounts of money on their pampered brats here now. In Washington or surrounding areas, where our politicians, lobbyists & other crooks live, you could easily double that. As an example, my son (43) is making close to $150K, has 3 managers & 150 people under him & is in the healthcare business.