What does a standard store assistant/shop worker earn per hour in Australia?

Question

I'm from the UK, and I was talking to someone who lived in Australia for a while and he was telling me that there's less of a gap between the average wages of skilled workers and unskilled workers in Australia than there is in the UK. I was told that on average, a standard store assistant in Australia earns more than someone doing the same job in the UK, so I'm interested in knowing just what the average hourly wage for this sort of job actually is.

In the UK, if you're over 18 and have been working at as a standard shop assistant/checkout staff for a few months, on average, the hourly wage is about £6.50 per hour, which works out to being roughly $14 Australian per hour. What is it on average in Australia?

Answer 1

In Australia, award wages vary from state to state and the full adult wage is paid from age 21 with pro-rata lower rates for younger employees, but the following NSW info should answer your question to some degree. There isn't a huge variation from state to state. Keep in mind that these are the award minimums. Most experienced staff will receive higher rates.

Basic hourly rates:

Full time workers

19 years $12.27

20 years $13.81

21 years and over $15.34

Full time workers receive 4 weeks annual leave, 10 paid sick days and other benefits

Casual workers:

19 years - $14.11

20 years - $15.88

21 years and over - $17.64

Casual workers accumulate around 8.3 per cent of their wages to be paid as holiday pay.

On top of the above, workers receive penalty rates for weekend and late night work (Saturday time and a quarter, Sunday 1 1/2 times, after 6.00pm 1 1/4 times, public holidays 2 1/2 times), uniform laundering allowances and a number of other things depending on their duties.

All employees in Australia also receive 9 per cent compulsory superannuation paid by their employer into a fund and preserved until retirement after age 55.

Answer 2

An example Actual Wage in August 2008

ALDI supermarket vacancies:

Area Manager $79,600 (inc Super) = $73,000 + super

Assistant Store Manager $49,450 to $65,000

Retail Assistant Permanent Part Time $19.40 per hour

Limited Roster Retail Assistant Permanent Part Time $18.45 per hour

The Federal Minimum wage is $13.74 per hour, rising to $14.31 in Oct 2008.

Answer 3

oz is correct, however, there is a change to trend for public holidays, many people now only receive double time not double time and a half.

Your bigger name companies like Big W, Kmart, etc have their own awards and own pay rates which are slightly higher then the minimum award wage.

On average, a lot of shop assistants are employed as casuals in Australia with the average wage of $18 per hour, over 21 yrs old.

Also not everywhere offers uniform allowances or travel allowances, so one doesn't expect it.

Part time employee's can earn the same rate as full-timers or a slightly higher rate depending on the company. Part timers also get 4 weeks annual leave, but not 10 days sick leave, it is actually based on 2 weeks worth of sick leave, but some companies are now offering more s/l.

I have one job that's 2 days a week and get a total of 4 sick days, which as you can imagine is very easy to use if you happen to fall sick on those days.