You kno wot? In Australia, the absolute mininimum, bare minimum wage an employee is allowed to be paid is like $17 per hour, even in retail. And if its a sunday or a public holiday: double. Minimum.
Bear in mind here guys that the AUD is worth more than the Greenback at this point in time, its about $1.02 US atm, it was up to $1.10 only 2/3 weeks ago.
Also bear in mind the unemploment rate is 5.1%. It was under 5% for years, but its still pretty low regardless.
Tbh I think that Minimum wage legislations sucks, and that employers should be allowed to pay their workers whatever the hell they think they're worth, but I am a libertarian.
I basically went to all the hassle of starting my own business and everything just so I could choose how much I charged for my time instead of being arbitrarily forced to accept award wages and union bargains etc.
The economy in the Western world is completely fvcked up now because Unions made it illegal for industry to have access to cheap labour in the west. Well, make no mistake, there is still cheap labor in the world, its just that the western economies can now longer utilise it and thus atrophy and die, their economies become less and less productive, generating less and less real wealth every year.
It will happen to Australia too, its just a matter of time. We have so far had the incredible luck of having a huge, sparsely populated, resource rich landmass all to ourselves, and made use of our competitive advantages in cheap energy generation from fossil fuels and proximity to booming China/India/Indonesia to thrive, but our current left-wing government is doing everything it can to reverse this situation, by trashing our competitive advantage through cheap energy by implementing the world's biggest carbon tax, and imposing a disgracefully socialist resource "rent" tax on our mining industry.
Anyway, I endorse Fuglydude's advice. I'm in the healthcare sector and my new business is thriving. I've only been operating for less than 6 months and I'm totally booked out, and momentum just keeps building. I will be looking to expand and employ workers myself in the new year, so there is definately some growth in this industry, as anyone who has studied the demographic curve in western countries could have speculated.
You need to create value, that's all there is to it. Perfect a process of creating value for your clients, then advertise it, and you'll start raking in the $$$. There's nothing to it, its the way of the future.