An English worker is going viral for revealing the “insane” amount people get paid to work a public holiday in Australia.
Tara, 29, has amassed over 100,000 views by sharing her astonishment at her hourly rate of $65 working as a hostess at a restaurant on Good Friday.
“The hourly public holiday rate in Australia is insane. I’m working 12 hours, but I’m getting paid $65 per hour because I’m on a casual contract,” she said in a TikTok video.
Holiday rates depend on the industry and whether the employee is casual, full-time, or part-time, but currently, the agreement for hospitality workers in Australia is a 25 percent loading on top of the worker's ordinary pay rate if they work a public holiday.
Tara explained that earning that much for a single shift covers half her rent for the month, and she finds that absolutely “insane.”
“It is an actual place where you can very good money and have a sick time while doing it,” she declared.
The young worker elaborated and added that she was happy she’d decided to avoid getting an office job in Australia.
“I love that I’ve gone into hospitality and not back into my corporate job because I’m having loads of fun,” she said.
When someone replied and said public holidays don’t happen that often, Tara said she’d already worked four this year and had another one coming up in April, which helped her afford her upcoming travel plans in June.
In fact, while some public holidays can vary from state to state, Australia has eight national public holidays a year.
Tara also said that even working a minimum-wage job in Australia has made her feel that it’s a “liveable” place because the wages are “good.”
The comment section was crammed with other people working in Australia sharing their lucrative holiday rates.
A youth worker commented and said they’d earned $865 for only 8 hours of work on a public holiday. Another declared they were earning $130 an hour over the holiday weekend, while someone else said their public holiday rate was $89 per hour, and one shared that they were bringing in $96.
Naturally, when the money conversation came up, there were plenty of different opinions on whether Australia’s holiday rates are good or bad for businesses.
“It’s not insane, babe! You deserve to get paid more for working today when heaps of people are partying or spending time with family,” one commented in support.
“Think you’ve forgotten how much tax will come out,” another pointed out.
Someone else claimed that paying workers higher rates on public holidays is “bad” for businesses and argued that lots of places don’t bother opening on public holidays anymore because they can’t break even if they have to pay higher wages.
Someone else argued that if businesses won’t get employees to give up their holidays, they need to offer more money to make it “worth it.”
While another said they were “excited” to work tomorrow because of the public holiday rates.