Wrong again ausflying, the federally mandated minimum wage in the USA is $5.15 per hour, with individual states having the right to set the minimum wage at higher levels, which a large number do, some significantly so. If a group of employees in the US refuses individual contracts and insists on bargaining collectively with their employer, the employer is legally obliged to do so, unlike the present situation in Australia. Legislation pertaining to industrial action is less onerous with respect to employees in the US when compared with Australia's brave new world. Pattern bargaining and collusion in Australia by groups of employers in a given industry to suppress wages is legal, the same collective action by groups of employees industry wide is not. I could go on, but the old typing finger isn't what it used to be.
One of the government's key justifications of its new IR regime is simplification. This is nonsensical, the new legislation runs to thousands of pages and is inherently extremely complex. The detail in the complexity relates to the myriad of ways in which the bargaining power of employees is eroded.
No other western democracy has enacted legislation which is as degrading and as potentially deeply harmful to the hard won industrial rights, safeguards and remuneration levels of a large proportion of its working population, as Australia.
Last edited by jaded boiler; 17th Aug 2006 at 16:18.