Whoever invented pay raises has to roll to the bank after the Fair Work Commission recently ruled that Australia’s lower-paid workers — like disadvantaged online columnists — deserved a raise and ruled that a $40-a-week addition was just enough. It will be to see if they get a fair deal.
Such a judgment is to be applauded in a wealthy country like Australia, as is the Commission’s courage in awarding such a fair and reasonable price to those who need it most.
PS-assist! has only one question for the Commission: Who calculates your calculations?
According to the Commission, a full-time employee with a 38-hour work week: “From July 1, 2022, the national minimum wage will increase by $40 a week, representing an increase of 5.2%.
The new national minimum wage will be $812.60 weekly or $21.38 hourly.
Call it Ps-assist! ‘s profanity with exactness or guesses of calculation, but we can’t get our abacus to produce $21.38 an hour for 38 hours and make $812.60.
$21.38 x 38 hours = $812.44, not $812.60, leaving the employee 16 out of pocket weekly.
While that may not seem like much to a high-paying worker, for a 30-year-old low-income worker retiring at 60, the total loss will be 52 weeks x 16¢ over 30 years, or $249.60, a relatively small amount until the day they need it, and it’s not there!
Last passing of the past
Call it another pathetic purge of PS-assist! Pedantic, but unless the end of the world is just around the corner, it wouldn’t be wise – accurately at least – that in reporting past events, we give some credit to mother nature that she will still have a job for at least one more year.
The Australian tax office has warned the public to be careful with unknown websites that ask for information and personal details. It has been reported that it has been busy lately.
“In the past 12 months, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) identified 595 websites and took action against our online services,” impressively advised.
“Over the past three years, younger Australians have been the victims of the most tax fraud,” it advised again.
What PS-assist! He is impressed by the office’s energy and wants to know where the ATO has discovered that we have been living in the ‘last’ three years or 12 months.
These may be difficult times, but is it the world’s end?
Still waiting for official notification that Armageddon is coming, PS-assist! and PS News use the old-fashioned commentary of the “past 12 months” in their reports, telling stories that happened in the past rather than what an unknown God has predicted its future.
On the plus side, though, if the end of the world is just a year away, all lucky survivors could be eligible for tax refunds.
missing numbers
A quick visit to Victoria and the past now announced that all state residents had been given free flu vaccines as the state’s way of keeping flu season under control as much as possible.
Announcing the free shots, the health minister explained that the number of flu cases in the state had increased dramatically in a short period, making it important that vaccinations were made available to as many people as possible.
“The number of flu cases in Victoria increased by more than 30 percent in the week to May 31,” the minister said, “from 10,000 to 15,000.”
Fortunately, the minister is not a minister of mathematics.
According to the PS-ssssts’ own Newton, an increase from 10,000 to 15,000 is a 50 since the new 5,000 was added to 10,000, where 5,000 was half, not a third.
If another 5,000 is added and the number comes to 20,000, that’s a 33% increase.
Another week, another great giveaway from the great Rama Gaind, this time a career guide on how to be a successful leader.
To succeed in Rama’s career-changing challenge, all we needed to know was the number of principles it took to put our team, work, and life to win a copy of Kerry Swan’s wise guide, Heartfelt Leadership.
The correct number of principles was ‘nine,’ and the two main entrants whose entries were sufficiently accurate and right to be the first out of the Barrel of Booty to win the awards were Kate D from the Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment, and Gwen T of the Queensland Department of Resources.
Congratulations to Kate and Gwen, and thanks to everyone who joined in on the fun. The guidebooks will soon be going to their new owners.
For another chance to put your performance skills to work, you must visit one or both of Rama’s current reviews – Lonely Planet’s Experience Guides: Portugal book review at this PS News link and her equally recent review of the Book work. Mom. To live. On this PS News link, wait for the judge to do the judging.
Like all the best things in life, PS-sssst’s puzzles and pleasantries are free, and all we need to do to become a winner is try it.
