Low paid workers

1. Low paid workers Helen Masterman-Smith Centre for Work and Life University of South Australia Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies

2. www.lowpayproject.com.au Funding Partners • LHMU • SA Unions • Unions NSW • Victorian Trades Hall Council • Brotherhood of St Laurence • Australian Research Council

3. About the study • Over 90 low paid workers (plus other stakeholders) • Low pay = $14/hr or $530/wk or $26800/year • Service industry workers • SA – childcare • Vic - cleaning • NSW - luxury hotels • Book release in 2008

4. Working low paid • 1 in 4 Australian employees are low paid • Wages • Fairness and justice • Hidden costs reduce value of wages • Making work pay Welfare barriers • [Many people say]… I’m giving up work because it’s more beneficial for me to stay on government money … it’s the extras like transport and health and teeth. … they’d prefer to work, but if it’s only twenty dollars difference … why travel an hour and half to try and get to work? (Simone, luxury hotel worker). Tax barriers • … [my second job is] taxed at about fifty percent I think. Because I’m a low income, I will get some of that back at the end of the year at tax time, but that’s pretty heavy for a second job… (David, cleaner)

5. Working Low Paid cont… • Poorer Conditions - eg. working time: • Long hours/short hours • … because of the low rate of pay … you basically have to work longer hours than you wish to, to earn a reasonable amount of money. (Kelly, childcare worker) • Multiple jobholding • Shift work and unsocial hours • Unpredictability, limited flexibility • Intensification • Well you don’t do the job as good as you can because you haven’t got time. … because they undercut the contractors, … and they’re expected to do a lot more work, and then they put it on to us, but they don’t want to give us the hours or anything to do it. (Lyn, cleaner) • Working Sick and Unhealthy Workplaces • Unionism – members supportive, but deafeatism increasing under WorkChoices

6. Living low paid • Low pay = working poverty??? • … the price of food and petrol going up every bloody week. Well that's made it more of a struggle on the budget because I mean three kids. Shopping's gone from like $100 a week to about $160 a week. ... that's just food shopping. … The petrol I used to do $40 a week up to about $50, $60 a week. … There's bills I've been putting off to cover everything. … I get extensions on everything (Bianca, cleaner). • Time and financial poverty • Health and Well-being • No time or money for prevention/treatment

7. Low Pay Pathways • Stepping stones myth • I have worked my bones out, you know, and never got anywhere else but just a cleaner. • Stumbling blocks • … there’s always going to have to be someone who has to clean the bins • Thwarted training • …it’s like a vicious circle because really you can’t just give up your paid work • Cut-price careers • I wouldn’t say that was a stepping stone. To me, it was just what I do. Table 1 Low Paid Workers Labour Market Transitions, Percentages, Australia, 2001-2003 Source: HILDA, Wave 1-3

8. What is to be done? • Traditional responses • Minimum standards • Tax credits • Working life model • Transitional labour markets • Childcare • Paid maternity leave • Career paths for the low paid • Education/training • Welfare/tax policy reform

9. www.lowpayproject.com.au Research leaders: Barbara Pocock (Uni of SA) John Buchanan (Sydney Uni) Susan Oakley (Adelaide Uni) Iain Campbell (RMIT Uni) Ian Watson (Sydney Uni) http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/cwl/