Unionized Walmart votes to decertify

[GrooveTunes]

http://www.blandclinicpa.com/vacation-is-a-necessity-not-a-luxury/

Thank god for socialists.

[Rwede]

http://www.blandclinicpa.com/vacation-is-a-necessity-not-a-luxury/

Thank god for socialists.

Great, they work less and therefore contribute less to their country's social programs, then live longer and cost those social programs a bundle more money caring for them in old age.

Yeah, that's mightily sustainable.

[Woodenhead]

Correlation does not equal causation; the arguments on the past page or so are simply an exercise in confirmation bias. (as are most posts on this site)

[Captain Awesome]

http://www.blandclinicpa.com/vacation-is-a-necessity-not-a-luxury/

Thank god for socialists.

Personally, I wouldn't even know what to do with 37 days of vacation (average in France).

[Rwede]

Personally, I wouldn't even know what to do with 37 days of vacation (average in France).

You'd get tired of staring at bare breasts on the beaches in Nice.

[hobbyguy]

Well here's a comparison between Victoria BC and Brisbane Australia, two coastal cities: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Canada&country2=Australia&city1=Victoria&city2=Brisbane

You will note that the consumer in Brisbane has more purchasing power than the consumer in Victoria despite the higher prices.

If you do a comparison between Vancouver BC and Melbourne, the consumer in Melbourne has 18.5% higher purchasing power in Melbourne.

Bear in mind that "sin" taxes are higher in Australia, and these folks are including cigarettes in their calculation at $16.13 per pack and beer is higher.

Interestingly, a McDonald's combo meal is cheaper in Melbourne. That doesn't seem to jive with many arguments against living wages.

So while yes, the cost of living in Oz is higher, the consumer actually has more purchasing power because their wage structure gives it to them. And contrary to the "economic doom" theory put forward regarding living wages, Australia's economy has outperformed in the last two decades. http://theconversation.com/factcheck-how-strong-is-australias-economy-16716

Oh, and the Aussies do get similar or better holidays than here, 4 weeks being the norm.

Countries like France are quite arguably "over the top". But I do think the Australians have a better balance.

[Captain Awesome]

Well here's a comparison between Victoria BC and Brisbane Australia, two coastal cities: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Canada&country2=Australia&city1=Victoria&city2=Brisbane

That's a nifty website. I wouldn't compare Brisbane to Victoria though - Victoria is a small city of roughly 100,000 metro population (and 200+ something with the suburbs) while Brisbane is over 2,000,000 people. When you plug Vancouver in, the difference comes down quite a bit, but still Brisbane wins by about 7% - my guess is mostly because of insane Vancouver real estate prices. But still.

[hobbyguy]

I thought it was a neat website too.

The wage structure in Australia is more complex than I expected thought: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay/national-minimum-wage/pages/default.aspx

That may explain why the McD combo meal prices aren't different. Lots of teens rotating through?

When I looked at the wage structure, my initial reaction was that youth unemployment in Australia would be dramatically lower than in Canada. It is roughly 20% lower than Canada, but still elevated at about 11.7%. Interestingly, the group 15-19 yrs old, where the wage minimums are the lowest, have the highest unemployment at 15.6%.

So in that case, low wage structure has not created employment.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any "living wage" calculations for Australian cities. But I suspect it isn't hugely greater than here, because of a number of factors. The big one is child care - I'm not sure how well it works, but there is a government program that rebates up to 50% of child care costs to a maximum of $7,500. Food costs as a percentage of income are lower, but rents are nasty. At a rough guess, I'd figure about 15-20% higher than here, so while the $16.37/hr looks good, it still falls short of "living wage" levels.

The average house price in Brisbane is $434,000 - which while high, isn't ridiculous. What I did have a bit of "sticker shock" over was water utility costs. $1,300/year for water! http://www.justlanded.com/english/Australia/Australia-Guide/Money/Cost-of-Living

Anyway, that's all a fun digression, but it does show that a society doesn't have to allow crap wages and worker exploitation to be economically successful. Which is how the digression started.

In point of fact, Australia consistently ranks at the top of the OECD "quality of life" index - and isn't that really what its all about? making sure that the citizenry have a good quality of life.

I fail to see how Walmart's predatory labor practices contributes to that.

[logicalview]

http://www.blandclinicpa.com/vacation-is-a-necessity-not-a-luxury/

Thank god for socialists.

(off-topic comment removed, address the topic please, not the poster - fluffy)