A minimum wage system was introduced to protect workers from being unfairly paid by employers. This law prohibits employers from paying its workers less than the specified hourly, daily or monthly rate. (Wikipedia: 2016) It is the base rate for ordinary hours worked. (Australian government: 2016: int) In Australia the basic wage was introduced in 1907 through the Harvester decision, where 7 shillings a day for an unskilled labourer was considered to be 'fair and reasonable wages’. (Fair Works Commission: 2016) However, since its introduction, the minimum wage in Australia has been progressively modified and now stands as of 1 July 2016 at $17.70 per hour or $672.70 per 38 hour week, before tax (Australian Government: 2016). More than 90% of all countries throughout the world have some kind of minimum wage legislation. (Wikipedia: 2016) The wages received by workers in the national workplace regulations system are determined through a specialist Minimum Wage Panel of the Fair Work Commission on an annual basis. Any new rates provided for by this commission apply on or after 1 July each year, depending upon when employee receive their next full pay. (Australian Government: 2016) There is currently no dispute in Australia which may threaten the existence of its minimum wage system, as such there are little statistics available on what impact this may have on our economy. However, in the United States of America President Obama has made raising the minimum wage the main focus of his campaign against "income inequality.” Resulting in a debate over the potential benefits versus pitfalls to their economy that this will cause. With the new President elect Donald Trump coming into power within the next few months, this has caused further uncertainty due to his contradictory statements on this topic. His latest being that “Mr. Trump has voiced support for raising it to $10 at the federal level, but believes states should set the minimum wage as appropriate for their state”.(The Washington Post: 1 August 2016) Any increase to the minimum wage in America will have similar impacts to those that may be experienced in the Australian economy, therefore it is an area that is important for Australians to take note of.
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