Jennifer Westacott, CEO of the Business Council of Australia, has written a lengthy piece in the Australian newspaper about penalty rates.

“Let’s take some examples. Level 1 aged care workers are paid $21.14 per hour to work a night shift. They are paid $27.57 per hour to work Saturday and $32.16 per hour to work Sunday.

A night shift would be any shift that started after 4pm or before 4am. I’m sure many in the community would agree that working overnight is much more unsociable than working on Saturday or Sunday. Yet, aged care workers are paid more than an extra $10 an hour to work on a Sunday than they are paid to work overnight.

Now let’s compare rates across industries — aged care compared to fast food. A level 1 fast-food casual worker is paid $26.58 per hour for working after midnight, $28.48 per hour for working on Saturday, and $33.22 per hour for working on Sunday.

Casual fast-food workers get paid $5, or 18 per cent, more an hour than level 1 aged care workers for a night shift.
A level 1 registered nurse is paid slightly less than a fast-food worker for a night shift — $25.22 per hour, compared to $26.58 an hour — but is paid slightly more for Sunday work — $38.38 per hour, compared to $37.95 per hour.

We’ve proposed a single economy-wide rate for each kind of premium rate — casual, overtime, shift work and unsocial hours. This would deliver consistency and transparency”.

I assume she believes the care worker delivers a better result for the community than a fast food worker…