“We’re not a nation of children”: James tells us why our minimum wage stinks
Hi, I’m James, I’m a 27-year-old bartender and I love being a hospo worker. I’m also a proud member of the United Workers Union.
My partner and I now have a baby on the way. It feels absolutely amazing – no questions asked. We’re excited, but we also have a sense of the reality of it.
The average person can’t afford their daily living. Not with things the way they are. So even the joyous moments that we have are also a strain. It’s unfortunate.
When I first started in this industry, I was paid enough to easily afford my bills with a bit left over to save. Not any longer. Every week, it gets harder to afford rent here in Sydney as well as paying for food.
It’s pretty ridiculous. I work close to full-time, but I worry about affording rent and having a stable home for my partner and child.
What kind of society do we live in where people do the best they can in their circumstances and are still pushed to the edge?
We want a society of adults. We’re not children. We don’t want to have to live with our parents forever. Especially now that we’re becoming parents. We want independence, but it’s not feasible.
Everyone has a voice, so I’m using mine to speak out about our shamefully low minimum wage and award pay rates.
My life as a bartender
Every job has it’s own value and purpose. Not everyone can or wants to be a lawyer or a doctor. But all jobs are needed and everyone has their part to play in a fair society.
Before psychologists, whenever you had a problem, the person you’d probably end up seeing first was a bartender. Bartenders are the unknown and underappreciated counsellors from yesteryear.
Being in the hospitality industry, you’re not just serving for the sake of a quick buck. Whenever a person comes up to the bar, they get served a drink, but they should also feel at home.
They don’t need to worry about what’s going on outside. They can speak about what’s going on in their life or just forget their troubles.
I never assume to know what’s going on in someone’s world, but I always like to greet people with a genuine smile and ask them how their day has been. I believe I can make a difference in people’s lives when I show I care.
It’s not the job that’s the problem. It’s the wages.
It’s getting harder to pay my bills
Despite loving my job, I’m sad to admit the pay isn’t great. My take-home pay is usually about $600 to $800 a week – and $500 of that goes to rent.
I always transfer a portion of my earnings into a separate bill account, so we’re not out-of-pocket for the important things. But each year, it’s becoming harder and harder to keep up with living expenses.
I’m also a type 1 diabetic, so healthcare is vital. These days, I’m slightly panicked about how I’m going to pay my next health insurance premium. It feels like you almost get looked after better being on the dole than trying to survive on the minimum wage.
Even buying fruit has become a luxury, because it’s just so expensive. Two-minute noodles have become a standard part of my diet.
There have been other sacrifices too. Heating this winter was out of the question, and some nights we didn’t turn the lights on at all. We just couldn’t afford that extra cost.
I used to be able to save a bit each month so I’d have a buffer. But these days, there’s nothing extra after I’ve paid for the essentials.
I know I’m not alone. Young people like me are sacrificing food and medicine just to make ends meet. We can’t afford to meet up with friends at a cafe, join a gym, or do things we enjoy that cost money.
This means our mental health suffers as well. It’s a vicious cycle.
I love my industry. Our wages are the issue
My grandfather was a bartender in a fine dining restaurant. He could buy and maintain a house on that single wage. You could never do that these days, and it’s not just true for my city.
In this article for The Guardian, Greg Jericho from the Centre for Future Work compares two people – one born in 1946, and one born in 1980.
Consider they both got their home loan at age 34. The person born in 1946 may have had a higher interest rate in 1980 when they bought their house, but their average repayment was only 29 per cent of their income. It was possible to have one income and still pay the mortgage.
The person born in 1980 buys their first home in 2014. By this point, the average home loan has gone up 1,079 per cent, but the average wage has only gone up 360 per cent. So, their mortgage repayments are, on average, a whopping 46 per cent of their average earnings – and it’s only been getting worse since then.
Let’s face it though, that’s for people lucky enough to afford to get on the property ladder by saving for a deposit. The way I’m going, it’s never going to happen.
A recent ABC report found that “a single, low-income, full-time worker living in Sydney was deemed to receive $852 in total income, after tax.”
“That’s about 20 per cent higher than the minimum wage.”
“But that individual needed $945 for food, clothing, personal and household items, health, housing, transport and an ‘austere’ level of discretionary spending.”
What does this mean? Many hard-working Australians don’t earn enough to keep up with the cost of living. We’re at crisis point.
So, what can we do?
The 5.75 per cent increase we received in 2023 was a historic win by union members, and I was proud to be part of that campaign. In 2024, we won a further 3.75 per cent increase.
It’s a relief to see that wages increased again with minimal provocation so that we can keep up with rising interest rates and CPI.
But it’s still moving too slowly.
We need a little more love because you can’t play nice when it comes to the cost of living. Homelessness is still on the cards for many workers. Australia is a wealthy country. This should not be the case.
I know I can’t keep living like this, and I don’t think you can either.
We need to keep speaking out about Australia’s minimum wage and award pay rates.
Clearly, for way too many of us, these wages are not enough to live on without facing constant anxiety and a daily battle just to survive.
If you have a job, you should be paid a living wage. It’s that simple.
There are millions of us in the same position. More of us must speak out and tell our stories. The more voices that come together in our union, the louder we are, and the harder it is to ignore.
Interested in learning more? Join UWU now to fight for higher wages and a better standard of living for all working Australians.
