Quote Originally Posted by iamirondude View Post
yes that is true that some unskilled are getting paid more then teachers,police etc.. but if you were to work on a weekend or a public holiday then they should be well paid for giving up time with their families. a lot of the unskilled make a lot of their extra pay by doing that so they can afford to live a little bit more comfortable.
Just a query, not a criticism - if someone only works on the weekend because it is at higher rates, shouldn't they just get paid normal rate because they aren't "giving up time with families" since they have 5 other days to spend with them.
Wouldn't it be fairer to be paid as "overtime", ONLY IF it is a person who works the 5 weekdays AND the weekend (which keeps them away from their families, or personal free time)?
That way, there is only the one penalty rate all week, paid to people who work more than 5 consecutive days in a week. We are becoming a 7-day society, so why have different pay rates to different days? If two people work 5 days a week, and one does Mon-Fri, while the other does Thur-Mon - wouldn't it be fair to pay them the same money for doing the same amount of work? Bump up the regular hourly rate to offset the reduction of the higher weekend rates, and just pay overtime for anyone doing more than 5 consecutive days in a week (if they don't end up with a 2-day "weekend" somewhere in the week). And then after-hours earns the regular penalty of being night rate.
The last place I worked at would have 5-day rosters, but people would earn more because they worked on a Saturday or Sunday, despite doing the same 40 hours and having a "weekend" somewhere in the week.
Some people may target a weekend job because it pays more, just to cover the high cost-of-living (with a family & house to pay off)... but others do it because they are young or single and it earns enough to not work the rest of the week. So if you get paid more for the exact same work (just because it is a different day of the week), shouldn't preference go to people who need it more?