Before the epidemic, among the more than 20 million people in Australia, there were about 3 to 4 million residents who were neither Australian citizens nor permanent residents. Except for some international students and visitors visiting relatives, the rest of them came to Australia with the same purpose, which is to make money!
Compared with Europe and North America, the overall wage level in Australia is higher, especially in the manual labor industry.
There are rumors in Australia that skilled construction workers can earn one million yuan a year, people who lift signs on the roadside can earn three to five hundred Australian dollars a day, and mango pickers on the farm earn more than Ali P7...
Is this really the case? ?
Farm workers
Australia and New Zealand have a special visa type called the "Working Holiday Visa". Its goal is to attract young people from all over the world to come to Australian farms to work and experience life, and travel and earn some money. .
In the habitable zones of eastern and southern Australia, from Queensland to South Australia, there are farms with a length of more than two thousand kilometers and a width extending hundreds of kilometers inland. These areas are often sparsely populated and have inconvenient transportation. Few local Australians choose to work here.
Fruit and vegetable farms are usually run by families and are seasonal. When the farming season is busy in summer and autumn, people need to be hired to pick and sort.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Australia has been closed for a year and a half. Last year alone, 600,000 working-age workers left the country, while the total number of local working-age workers in Australia was only about 15 million.
Fruit farmers start work at four o'clock in the morning and finish at noon. They work eight hours a day with only a fifteen-minute break in between. Their income is directly linked to the amount of picking. Under normal circumstances, the daily income is about 200-250 Australian dollars.
Working holidaymakers are now unable to enter Australia, causing the cost of picking fruits and vegetables to skyrocket. Half a year ago, the price of some vegetables in Australian supermarkets increased by more than 100%. A spinach farm in Melbourne did not hesitate to offer a bonus of AU$750,000 to recruit unemployed urban youth. Come to work.
There is also a kind of part-time farm worker, where food and accommodation are provided, and you get to live close to the farmer and his family. There is no heavy work at ordinary times. You only need to take care of the children and feed the cattle and sheep.
Of course, this kind of "live-in" job usually only pays a small bonus and no hard salary. Their goal is to go into ordinary Australian homes, feel the local culture and customs, and practice their English skills.
Regular masseur
As we all know, special services in Australia are legal, provided they have a business license, but this does not prevent the regular massage business from flourishing.
There are many Chinese massage parlors in Sydney , mainly located in Chinese gathering areas, such as Hurstville, Eastwood and city centre... Around Chinatown, there is also a large Chinese bathing center with baths, saunas, steams, massages and spas. .
The price of small shops is generally 80-90 Australian dollars per hour for Chinese massage, nearly 140 Australian dollars for bathing center tickets + one-hour massage, and 59 Australian dollars for ear picking and pedicure separately.
According to the employees of the bathing center, they almost never take holidays and earn about 2,000 Australian dollars per week (according to the New South Wales Bureau of Statistics, the average weekly salary of the adult male labor force in New South Wales is 1,600 Australian dollars).
Many massage technicians do not have work visa status. They are either accompanying their parents or obtained through tourist visas.
For example, there was a middle-aged male technician who lost 1.5 million yuan in his breeding business. He then went abroad to work and saved 500,000 yuan a year as a technician. After three years, he returned to his hometown to start a small business.
Construction site construction workers
When the author lived in Australia, I was fortunate to be neighbors with two construction workers. One was a Chinese from Malaysia and the other was a mainlander. They worked on the same construction site.
According to Malay Chinese description, his job is mainly to install panels for new buildings. The hourly salary is 40 Australian dollars, working 10 hours a day, one day off per week, and three times the salary on holidays.
According to him, just five years ago, the income of Australian construction workers was still very ordinary, and it has only increased by more than 50% in recent years.
Another mainland worker is nearly 40 years old. His family members are all in China and he is the main source of income for his family. He has been in Australia for 8 years. He worked as a laborer in Sydney and repaired water pipes. He always received a relatively low salary (close to the legal minimum wage). After being introduced by a friend, he came to Canberra to work as a construction worker.
is different from the technical jobs of the Malay Chinese. His main duty is to work hard on the construction site. In terms of income, the combined annual salary of the two of them is almost the same. Both can reach 140,000 to 150,000 Australian dollars per year before tax (including overtime and holidays). subsidy).
Delivery boy
The author once lived in a small town on the outskirts of Canberra, about 25 kilometers from the city center and nearly half an hour's drive. The landlord of the villa I rented is a middle-aged woman from Guangdong. Due to the language barrier, the landlord has been engaged in Chinese food delivery services for a long time.
The food delivery company registered by the landlord is EASI, a Chinese food delivery platform spanning Australia and North America, with its headquarters in Melbourne. Private transportation is required, and you can start working after a few hours of training and full insurance.
Before the epidemic, the off-season was usually from November to February of the following year. During this period, it was the summer vacation in Australia. International students returned to their countries during the holidays, which affected the food delivery business. Even so, a full-time delivery driver can still earn more than 200 Australian dollars a day.
During the peak season, the income of a full-time delivery person can be stable at 300 Australian dollars. If you participate in late night food delivery, it can even reach 400 Australian dollars (participating in late night snack delivery).
Of course, due to the small population density in Australia and the long distances between different residential areas, cars are usually required for delivery, and gasoline and maintenance costs are also a large expense.
Part-time workers in Chinese restaurants or Chinese supermarkets
Australia’s legal minimum wage exceeds 20 Australian dollars per hour, which is equivalent to about 100 yuan per hour. However, odd jobs in Chinese restaurants or Chinese Super League generally do not reach the minimum wage, and the salary range is generally distributed between 15 Australian dollars per hour. About hours.
The reason is that those who work part-time are usually students (students are legally allowed to work 20 hours per week). Students have academic burdens that prevent them from working full-time, and they prefer jobs with flexible schedules.
There are a lot of odd jobs like this. Although some students can't stand the low salary, there are always people who will do it even if they don't do it. Adelaide The famous "Kung Fu Milk Tea" incident originated from a salary dispute between labor and management, which resulted in a fight between the boss and the employee.
A prosperous society
Even if we look around the world, there are only a handful of Australians who are wealthy, creating a prosperous society.
The so-called prosperous society refers to a society with ample living space for all people and multiple paths for class advancement. In Australia, as long as you are willing to work as a technician, construction worker, delivery person, or plumber repairman, your income may not be lower than that of someone with a higher education.
Take the four major banks in Australia as an example. For freshly graduated college students to work at the front desk of a bank, the general salary range is 55,000-60,000 Australian dollars per year.
When office workers in accounting firms, law firms, and multinational corporations first join the job, or even within ten years of joining the job, their salaries are far lower than those of construction workers.
Only by relative equality in salary can we develop the concept of professional equality. The next time you see government workers holding signs on the roadside, you'll understand why they often have smiles on their faces.
