WEATHER: Another picture-perfect day. High around 70
Today we made the trip that we tried last week, when the bus was not running due to a festival. Today, our successful trip started here in Mooloolah from where we took the train to another city. With a 5-minute connection, we caught a bus that took us to our destination, Maleny. The bus ride was beautiful, through foothills of the Glasshouse Mountains.
Arriving in Maleny at 12:30, our first task was to find lunch. Maleny is a cute little mountain town. It reminded me of Blowing Rock, North Carolina in the Smoky Mountains. Lots of cute sidewalk cafés, boutiques, organic shops, art galleries, and real estate offices. With lots of choices, we settled on "The Old Bank" cafe. After lunch, we peaked into lots of shops, and bought some cheese at a wonderful cheese shop.
From Maleny, we took another bus to a different town where we caught the train, after checking out their local pub. Back home, the birds were waiting for their afternoon meal.
The news on TV tonight was about raising the minimum wage. It is about $19/hour. The legal workweek is 38 hours/week, after which is overtime. The other topic in the news is questioning work/life balance.....should 38 hours be reduced and/or enforced more, especially for fathers.
My info not be totally correct, but this is what i have gathered.....
- Saturday weekend differential, called penalty rates, is time and a half
-Sunday differential is double time
-Holidays are double time
-Some holidays are triple time
-Christmas is triple and a half time
-Salaries are high. Tradesmen, for example, earn $150k
-Full-time workers earn 6 weeks of paid vacation annually. Plus, there is a 17% "load leave" paid while on vacation
-Sick days and holidays are on top of the vacation
-12 weeks of paid maternity/paternity leave are provided, with talk about increasing this
- A type of sabbatical of 3- month paid additional leave, after a certain number of years worked
I think one reason employers can pay this is because employers do not provide health insurance benefits. All citizens receive free government healthcare. Most wage-earners buy their own private health insurance, as this is perceived as better access than the public healthcare.
Also, the cost-of-living here is much higher than in the USA. A hamburger in a regular cafe is about $18. Gas is about $5/gallon. A beer in a pub is about $8, mixed drink about $18. Real estate is very expensive. They say you can't buy a teeny condo for less than $1 million in metro areas like Sydney. I think taxes are quite high. Public services are much better here, especially transportation. The earnings disparity seems less here. I see very little poverty, although I know it exists. Very few homeless.
Another consequence of the high weekend pay is that many shops just close down on the weekends, especially on Sundays. Those that do stay open often pass on the additional cost by adding a surcharge the customers must pay. This is quite controversial right now.
After all of this thinking, I heard an interesting noise outside, it was an old-fashioned ice cream truck, cruising the neighborhood!
DINNER: Leftover lamb chop with pasta on the side.
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