Sun, surf and bonzer pay

摘要

Australia has long been at the leading edge of minimum wages. The state of Victoria was the second place in the world to introduce a wage floor in 1896, beaten only by New Zealand. A landmark legal case in 1907 took a more expansive view of a fair wage, ruling that it should be enough to maintain a family with three children in "frugal comfort". Australia is still at it: it now has the world's most generous minimum wage, reclaiming a distinction it last held more than a decade ago.