BARVENNON.COM
AUSTRALIAN
DIARY
ARCHIVES 1997-2007 --- ARCHIVES 2007 +
JANUARY
2015
EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME
If
you look on the Australian
Bureau of Statistics website, you will find the following:
The
mining
industry
pays
more
Mining
industry wages tend to be higher than those paid by other industries,
and considerably higher than the minimum wage. In May 2012, average
hourly cash earnings of full-time non-managerial adult employees
working in the mining industry ($52.30) were higher than comparable
earnings of comparable employees working in other industries,
especially those working in the retail trade ($25.20) and
accommodation and food services ($23.90) industries. At the same
time, the adult national minimum wage was $15.51 per hour. (Endnote
2)
The lesson seems to be, work for an industry that has monopolies in a resource or utility service. Next is in education, another monopoly. That is followed by Computer skills.
The number of people benefiting from mining is increasing. Funny, most of the increase (more than 100% increase) happened since 2008-2009. I wonder what happened then? Open a lot of new mines? Or perhaps some change in the labour laws.
HOW
MANY ARE IN THE MINING INDUSTRY?
Between
February 1986 and May 2000, the number of people employed in the
mining industry in Australia gradually decreased from 109,200 to
74,800. However mining industry employment has more than tripled
since, peaking at 276,300 in May 2012.
NUMBER
OF PEOPLE EMPLOYED IN THE MINING INDUSTRY
SELECTED INDUSTRIES OF EMPLOYMENT(a) OF CENSUS NIGHT
POPULATIONS - AUGUST 2011
Source:
Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly (cat. no. 6291.0.55.003)
______________________________
So it looks like the advice to give your children is, choose a monopoly industry with strong union representation during a period when a Labour government is in power.
MEDICARE REBATE
The government recently retreated from a plan to reduce the medicare rebate for “Brief Consultations” by $20.00.
The medicare rebates for consultations are as follows:
|
CHARGE (Rate/Hr) |
SERVICE NUMBER SERVICE |
|
$42.00 ($504/hr) |
AA220: Brief consultation (not more than 5 minutes). |
|
$55.00 ($220/hr) |
AA230: Standard. More than 5 minutes duration but not more than 15 minutes duration. |
|
$106.00 ($212/hr) |
AA240: More than 15 minutes duration but not more than 30 minutes duration. |
|
$160.00 ($213/hr) |
AA250: More than 30 minutes duration but not more than 45 minutes duration. |
|
$215.00 ($215/hr) |
AA260: More than 45 minutes duration but not more than 60 minutes duration. |
|
$240.00 ($192/hr) |
AA270: More than 60 minutes duration but not more than 75 minutes duration |
|
$265.00 NA |
AA280: More than 75 minutes duration. |
Based
on
a
doctor
using
the
whole of the time available for each class of
consultation, the charge per hour generally works out to be $200/Hr,
excepting for “short” consultations, where the charge exceeds
$500/hr. One can sympathize with the government's attempt to reduce
the rebate by $20.00.
That would have brought the hourly rate down from $504 to a higher than average rate of $262/hr.
You may thank the biassed reporting of “Your ABC” and the Fairfax media for this backdown.