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Australians have some wonderfully Aussie thoughts about the American minimum wage

Photo by Melissa Walker Horn on Unsplash, @BrettKlein/Twitter

Australia's minimum wage is an example for us all.

How great is Australia? A relaxed cultural vibe that is progressive, inclusive and seems like a literal day at the beach. They even give us some of our favorite Marvel superhero film actors. Must be tough to make a buck there though, right? Actually, they've got a significant edge on us there as well. Take a look at Australian's minimum wage and how much further it goes for the average worker than for your typical hard-working American.

Australian unions are currently pushing for a 5% increase to the minimum wage to counter inflation. Australia's minimum wage is 20.33 Australian dollars per hour, which is the equivalent of $15.23 (as of the writing of this article).

Meanwhile, Americans are still sitting on the same federal minimum wage we've had since 2009—a whopping $7.25 an hour—while we are also dealing with inflation.

Minimum wage by U.S. state varies—a lot—from $7.25 to $15.90. And most states have different minimum wages for tipped jobs such as wait staff in a restaurant, on the assumption that you'll earn enough tips to make up the base wage. Though employers can choose to pay above the minimum, they aren't required to. And the minimum tipped wage in 17 states is $2.13 per hour.

Let me repeat that. In 17 states in the United States of America in 2022, the tipped minimum wage is $2.13 per hour.

That's bonkers. And the disparity between states is, frankly, shocking. If you live in Washington state, for example, you're guaranteed to make at least $14.49 per hour in any job, whether you get tips or not. If you live in Idaho—literally the state next door—you're guaranteed $7.25 per hour for standard labor and just $3.35 per hour for tipped employment. So the base pay for a waiter on one side of an imaginary line is four times more than on the other. So weird.

Anyway, back to Australia. They're a little worried about us, and it's not hard to see why.

from antiwork

A 16-year-old Australian on Reddit was shocked to learn that the federal minimum wage here is $7.25 per hour. "There is no way someone can live off that wage even if they're working full time." Yep, nope.

Another Aussie responded to a sign for Buc-ee's, a chain of country stores and travel centers in the southern United States, announcing wages for full-time work ranging from $15 to $17 per hour for associates to $22 to $32 per hour for department leads. To American eyes, in most states, this sign is a unicorn of awesome hourly starting wages for "unskilled" labor.

To Australian eyes, these are the lowest wages they ever see in their country.

Despite Australia having a minimum wage of AU$20.33 ($15.23), most workers actually make more than that. In addition to its minimum wage, Australia has a system under its Fair Work Act called Modern Awards, which establishes base pay and benefits for workers in a variety of industries, from fast food to health and beauty to caregiving.

One caveat: Workers under age 21 can make less than minimum wage in Australia, so teenagers may make significantly lower wages than AU$20.33 per hour (though still not as low as $7.25 per hour). However, the Modern Awards system dictates higher than minimum wage earnings for most workers—even for basic fast-food jobs—for people over 21. For example, the starting pay for a Level 1 fast-food worker over age 21 is AU$22.33 ($16.72) per hour during the week, AU$27.91 ($20.90) per hour on Saturdays and Sundays, and AU$50.24 ($37.63) per hour on holidays.

Not too shabby.

Another Australian pointed out that the amount some Americans pay for a college education is bonkers, in addition to our low minimum wage.

Australians graduate with less student loan debt than Americans, on average, and their student loan payments only start over a certain income threshold (and are linked to the amount you make).

Oh and let's not forget that Australians don't have to pay for healthcare out of their own pocket, either. And they have paid maternity leave of up to 18 weeks at the national minimum wage. And they have a minimum of four weeks of paid vacation time for all employees, on top of paid national hoildays.

But don't Australians pay a much higher tax rate than Americans for these benefits, you may ask? No, not really. According to the Tax Foundation, a single worker earning an average wage in the U.S. pays an average tax rate of 28.3% while in Australia they pay an average of 28.4%—so basically the same tax burden, at least for single people with no kids.

It's not that Australia is perfect, of course. But when it comes to paying people reasonable wages and guaranteeing paid time off and providing healthcare to all, they're light years ahead of the U.S.

Rather than seeing it as a woe-is-us comparison, however, let's look at it as "Hey, look at what's possible!" We, too, could have wages people can actually live on and not go into bankruptcy over medical bills and ensure that everyone gets paid time off so they can actually relax a little. It doesn't have to be some distant pipe dream; it's a matter of collective and political will. If Australia can do it, there's really no good reason we can't, too.

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Iceland just announced a no-nonsense plan to eliminate its wage gap in 5 years.

On Oct. 24, 2016, thousands of Iceland's women stopped working at 2:38 p.m.

At the time, the country's men were earning an average of 18% more for doing the same jobs.

So women decided they were going to work 18% fewer hours (hence walking off the job at 2:38 p.m.) for a day to prove a powerful point.

Thousands took off early and poured into the streets to voice their displeasure with the wage gap (which, hey, is actually a lot better than in most of the world but still needs to be fixed).

In early March 2017, not even five months later, things may finally be changing, in no small part thanks to the work of these protestors.

Government officials in Iceland just announced new legislation that would require companies to open their books and prove they're providing equal pay for equal work.

According to USA Today, the measure is expected to be approved by parliament because lawmakers across the political spectrum all agree that the wage gap needs to be fixed ASAP.

(That must be nice.)

"Equal rights are human rights," said Social Affairs and Equality Minister Thorsteinn Viglundsson. "We need to make sure that men and women enjoy equal opportunity in the workplace. It is our responsibility to take every measure to achieve that."

Iceland won't be the first nation to enforce equal pay, but its policy is considered to be one of the most aggressive yet as it targets any company, public or private, with at least 25 employees.

The government is hoping measures like this one will help to completely eradicate the pay gap in the next five years.

This is a massive victory, not just for women, but for the power of engaged citizens who refuse to accept inequality.

The news out of Iceland comes hot off the heels of A Day Without a Woman, which called for women all over the world to strike — from work, from home duties, from the multitude of tasks they juggle day in and day out — to make their value known to the world in no uncertain terms.

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A post shared by Áslaug Lárusdóttir (@aslauglar_) on

Critics of the strike questioned its ability to make a difference since turnout would be smaller and more scattered than the massive Women's March that took place shortly after Inauguration Day.

But the citizens of Iceland are proof-positive that public demonstrations can and do work. It sounds trite, but when enough people come together to make their voices heard, people in power have no choice but to listen. Even if it seems like they're not.

Change may not happen overnight, or even in five months as it did in Iceland, but as the saying goes, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Sometimes, the arc just needs a couple thousand badass women forcing it to bend a little more quickly.

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5 'Big Bang Theory' actors agree to a pay cut so their female co-stars can earn more.

When two of the female co-stars of "The Big Bang Theory" stood up for equal pay, their coworkers didn't just mumble the usual supportive platitudes.

Cast members of "The Big Bang Theory." Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images.

According to a report in Variety, the show's five original cast members each agreed to take a $100,000 per episode pay cut so that Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialick — who joined the cast in season three — could get a raise.

Rauch (left) and Bialick. Photo by Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images.

The show's original (and predominately male) stars — Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kunal Nayyar, Simon Helberg, and Kaley Cuoco — currently make a staggering $1 million per episode while Bialick and Rauch earn much less at $200,000.

With an extra $500,000 per episode allocated to the two women, their salaries would rise to $450,000 — less than half of what the original five actors presently earn but more than double their original rate. Contract negotiations are ongoing.

As in many industries, women in TV and movies are frequently paid less than their male co-stars.

While none of "The Big Bang Theory" players are hurting for cash regardless of the pay disparity, not all actors make bank like the stars of a hit network TV show going on 10 seasons. And if pay inequality can happen to people on the higher end of the pay scale, where they have agents and managers advocating on their behalf, it can (and does) happen to people at all levels of pay.

That gap reflects, among other inequities, female actors' shorter earnings peak and fewer opportunities to star in big-budget film franchises and hit TV shows. Part of the reason Rauch and Bialick earn so much less than their castmates is because the show only added them to its male-dominated lineup three seasons into its run (though they officially became part of the main cast in season four).

Often, even big female stars find themselves earning less for similar work.

Amy Adams (left) and Jennifer Lawrence. Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In 2015, Sony found itself embroiled in scandal after hacked e-mails revealed that "American Hustle" leads Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner were paid more than Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role.

Women who ask for raises tend to get them less often — across a wide variety of fields.

A 2016 study by the University of Wisconsin, the University of Warwick, and Cass University found that although women ask for pay increases at roughly the same rate as men, they get them 25% less frequently. Additional research shows that women who do ask are perceived as "greedy" more often than their male colleagues.

Bialick and Rauch are reportedly continuing to press Warner Bros. TV and CBS to get closer to actual parity. And more women in Hollywood are speaking out about unfair treatment.

Scarlett Johansson recently revealed to Marie Claire magazine that her status as highest-grossing actress of all time "does not mean I'm the highest paid." And after the "American Hustle" scandal broke, Jennifer Lawrence was even more blunt about advocating for herself going forward in a letter published in Lenny:

"I'm over trying to find the 'adorable' way to state my opinion and still be likable! Fuck that. I don't think I've ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard."

Hopefully, "The Big Bang Theory" negotiations are evidence that more men in the industry are finally waking up to what their female colleagues have struggled with for years.

Photo by Monty Brinton/CBS.

The fact that the show's four men — and one woman — are opening up their own pocketbooks in support of their co-stars is an encouraging sign.

As more movie and TV stars start talking a big game about supporting pay equity, some are finally putting their money where their mouth is.

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Watch Audi's bold, touching, and totally feminist Super Bowl ad.

"What do I tell my daughter?"

"Do I tell her that her grandpa is worth more than her grandma? That her dad is worth more than her mom?"

All GIFs via Audi/YouTube.

"Do I tell her that — despite her education, her drive, her skills, her intelligence — she will automatically be valued less than every man she ever meets?"

"Or maybe, I'll be able to tell her something different."

Those are the narrator's words in a powerful new Super Bowl ad by Audi that highlights pay inequity.

Check it out below:  

Clearly, Audi's not shying away from using the big game to make a political statement.

Pay inequity, a hot topic on the 2016 campaign trail, has become an increasingly important issue to many Americans.

Today, women earn, on average, a measly 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. The wage gap is even more severe for women of color — with black women earning about 64 cents and Latina women earning about 56 cents for every dollar that finds its way into the wallet of a man doing the same job.

That 79 cents figure, however, doesn't quite tell the whole story.

There are many factors that play into the wage gap aside from discrimination. For instance, women tend to leave the workforce when they have children (which sets them back on the pay scale in the long term) and are more likely to seek out jobs with more flexible hours at the expense of a higher salary, The Washington Post noted.

There are other social factors at play, too, like the fact women are less likely to negotiate their starting salaries and are more hesitant to apply for a job that they're not 100% qualified for (this isn't the case for men).

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

But again, that's still only telling part of the story.

The ad received a lot of criticism from viewers who jumped at the chance to explain why they think pay inequity isn't a real problem.

As The Wall Street Journal reported, negative comments on the ad's YouTube video far outnumber the positive ones.

And here's where we come to the rest of the story.

The thing is, even when you do account for all the other non-discriminatory factors, like women leaving the workforce to raise kids or not negotiating higher salaries, women are still earning significantly less than men.

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.

Congress' Joint Economic Committee released an April 2016 report detailing how pay inequity is affecting women. Beyond larger economic and societal influences, the report concluded that gender bias still plays a big role.

"Economists believe that the gender pay gap is caused by complex factors," the report reads. "However, even when all those factors are taken into account, as much as 40% of the pay gap may be attributed to discrimination."

Take salary negotiations, for instance: Yes, women may be less likely to ask for higher pay, but even when they do, they tend to have less success in actually securing it.

Heartfelt Super Bowl ad aside, if Audi wants to make a bold statement about the pay gap, the company should also walk the walk. And from the looks of it, they're committed to closing their own pay gap.

As many pointed out on Twitter, the company certainly has room for improvement when it comes to gender equality in the workforce — just two of their top 14 executives are women, for instance — but the car company has made moves to get better.

In Dec. 2016, Audi signed the White House Equal Pay Pledge with the Obama administration, committing to conduct annual company-wide gender pay analysis and review its hiring practices to reduce gender bias along with other initiatives. Audi says it also supports external programs that empower women in STEM and business fields.  

Making a powerful ad is one thing, following through with real-world action is another.

"Progress is in every decision we make, every technology we invent, every vehicle we build," the brand said in a statement.

"Audi of America is committed to equal pay for equal work."

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