…solves the low-wage problem by hiring kids who don’t know better.
Or better yet, we should enact laws that protect children from the workforce. Maybe we can call them “child labor laws”
It used to be a funny joke about sending them to the spice mines on Kessel… now I miss them sometimes
…solves the low-wage problem by hiring kids who don’t know better.
And they’re at work instead of school so they don’t learn better.
Nor will they taste the freedom of being a child.
Just as what the overlord intended.
Wow did not realise that three of our states don’t have a minimum working age - NSW, Tasmania and South Australia.
Not as fucked up as it sounds. Federally, the minimum working age is 16 and parents are legally required to keep their kids in school until they’re 16. Most Aussies believe you need to be 14 and 9 months to get a job (beyond the family business), as that was an older minimum schooling requirement (decades ago).
Combined with the high quality of living, low poverty rate, high immigration (suppressing wages), and high minimum wage, this functionally meant that there was never any reason for the states to mandate a minimum working age — businesses didn’t seek to employ them.
Obviously now that capitalism has corrupted most governments and abandoned the social contract, we need to rethink all norms of modern society.
Eh, I agree with you on most of that except the high minimum wage bit.
The minimum wage for anybody 15 or under is 40% of the wage for anybody over 21. I believe that not all industries do have that provision in their award, but all entry level jobs do. I guess it’s a bit of a miracle that it doesn’t keep going down further than 15, because if it did, maccas would probably be run by 11 year olds making 10% of the 21+ wage.
But even besides that, our minimum wage isn’t really high compared to the cost of living, which is the metric that really matters. Our minimum wage compared to elsewheres cost of living is not a good comparison
Wait is this an Australian news story? I just assumed it was about somewhere here in the US
As someone who grew up in NSW it’s 14 and 9 months. Exceptions might exist for family businesses etc. but your 8-year-old can’t apply for a job at Woolies.
Apparently it used to be that, but now there is no limit: https://www.industrialrelations.nsw.gov.au/new-to-work/essential-information-for-people-new-to-work/new-to-work-faq/#:~:text=How old must I be,may apply relating to age.
The children yearn for the jam factory
You can take the children out of the jam factory but you can’t take the jam factory out of the children
Unless they fall into the industrial equipment, then you absolutely cannot take the children out of the jam factory.
Child poverty is a big issue but people seem to forget that work is the best thing again poverty /s
Really? I’m over here in Texas and we seem to have found a completely different solution to childhood poverty. And childhood…
Some facts to consider:
- This happened in New South Wales, in a very rural area. People are not going to commute out to this remote location for minimum wage.
- Kids volunteer on the weekends and parents sign off on it.
- Some of the kids like it because they don’t have anything else to do, they learn a job skill, and they make a little money.
That said, I don’t agree with it. Hire adults and do what everyone else does by having a “bring your child to work day/week” if you want to teach kids. Or make a field trip. Let’s not go backwards in society to benefit companies.
Kids volunteer on the weekends and parents sign off on it.
I grew up in a poor rural area, and we had a bunch of child labor due to agriculture exceptions.
Most of it wasn’t kids earning a “life skill” or pocket money. It was poor kids who had to work. And usually their parents worked there too.
And they only need to be 12 for it to be legal.
The families need the kids to work, but the kids working inflates the labor pool and keeps wages low.
If a kids like 16 and wants to pick up a part time job, cool.
But little kids shouldn’t be holding down jobs.
Having partially grown up with this shit, I would say these asshole can absolutely get fucked and do the work themselves. They good enough to count beans, they good enough to clear the land, plant em, take care of them, harvest them, and sell 'em all before they get to do beancounting duties. You count the beans you bring to market by the sweat of your own brows, no exceptions
Might help them realize why Protestant work ethic shit is garbage exploiter nonsense
