A British couple has been amazed by the income they can earn through casual jobs in Australia’s hospitality and retail sectors. Young Brits are increasingly choosing to move to Australia, drawn by better work-life balance, pleasant weather, and higher pay.
Shane and Anna, from Lincolnshire in the East Midlands, are currently living on the Gold Coast on working holiday visas. Shane, a mechanical fitter, is working as a barista on a casual basis, while Anna, who previously worked for a local council, now has a casual retail job.
The couple, aged 27 and 25, shared their experiences with Yahoo Finance, expressing surprise at the wages they receive for casual minimum wage jobs. Shane earns a base rate of $32.50 per hour, while Anna earns $34.48 per hour.
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“When you think about a casual wage being basically $34 and then you get all your loading fees for late nights, Saturdays and Sundays, public holidays, that just doesn’t exist in England,” Anna said.
Anna recently posted a video on the couple’s social media, breaking down a recent fortnight where she was paid $2,079. This included hours worked at her base rate, plus evening and Saturday rates of $41.37, a public holiday rate of $68.95, along with a clothing allowance and sales incentive.
Anna said she “could not believe” how much she was paid for the casual job and admitted “the UK could never”.
In Australia, the national minimum wage is $24.95 per hour. For workers covered by the retail industry award, adult base pay rates start at $33.19 per hour for casual employees, where hours, of course, are not guaranteed.
That’s compared to the UK, where the minimum wage is currently £12.71, or roughly $23.90.
“In the UK, if you’re on a minimum wage job, let’s say £12, if you were to buy a coffee out at Starbucks you’re talking £6 to £7, which equates to half an hour of your hourly wage,” Shane said.
“Whereas here, I’m on $32.50 and Anna’s on $34, and we can get a coffee, a flat white, for $4.50 or $5. So that’s a fraction of the hourly wage compared to a half hour’s wage back in the UK.”
The couple are currently working roughly 35 to 38 hours a week in their casual jobs, which is near full-time hours. They’ve also rented an apartment on the Gold Coast with two friends for $1,100 a week.
They aren’t the first to share their surprise at the comparatively high wages on offer in Australia. Last year, Liverpool woman Lauren shared she was earning $34 as a base rate working at IGA, with higher rates for evenings, weekends and public holidays.
That’s compared to back home, where she was earning £12.50 an hour as a support worker, with the same rate of pay for evening, weekends and public holidays. She was working 60-hour weeks making roughly £2,500 monthly.
“I just cannot believe the difference in wages. It’s just insane,” she said.
Brits flocking to Australia
There were a total of 321,000 working holiday visas issued last financial year, which was up by more than a third on the previous year.
Brits made up about a quarter of visas, with the number issued increasing from 47,000 to a record 79,000 in the financial year.
It coincided with rule changes that mean UK citizens are no longer required to complete 88 days of regional work to extend their visas. The maximum age was also lifted from 30 to 35.
Shane and Anna didn’t initially plan to move to Australia, but said they always had an “itch” to travel.
“We thought what better time to travel now because you never know what’s around the corner,” Shane said.
“So we put the house up for rent, quit our jobs, sold everything and thought we’d give Asia a go.”
After travelling around South East Asia for a few months, they felt like they weren’t ready to go home and coincidentally had their Australian visas approved.
The couple said they are glad they made the move and are enjoying working casual jobs that are completely different from their UK roles.
“We’ve never done this particular line of work. The biggest thing that I would say is the difference in these jobs is that we wouldn’t be able to rent an apartment on casual jobs,” Anna said.
“It just would never happen. The lifestyle we have here just would not be funded on the jobs that we have at home.”
Shane said the couple were also enjoying the work-life balance the casual jobs offered.
“We’re going out for coffees every morning, it’s just a completely different lifestyle and we both fell in love with it.”
They plan to extend their working holiday visas when they expire in October and have been sharing their life as Brits living Down Under on social media.
