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I've found why I haven't been paid.
Apparently although I don't have to do the 'payment requirements' right now - proving that I've applied for jobs upon jobs upon jobs - I haven't actually 'reported on my income' for the last couple of months, which you have to do every fortnight in order to be paid. I called up the office and got it fixed in about 20 minutes.
Also: in a chat with US friends yesterday, I realised that what Australians think of as unemployment is not quite the same as what Americans think of as unemployment.
eg. The Aussie dole is paid for (I believe) by income tax and available to anyone at what is pretty much a flat rate. If I was earning $15K a year and now am collecting the dole, I'm paid the same amount as someone who was earning $150K a year before they lost their job and started collecting the dole.
The thing is, after one has been earning $150K a year, one doesn't want to live on the flat rate they offer. I'd much rather be working full time (actually, I'd much rather be working part-time) and being paid considerably more than 'living on the dole'. It's humiliating and mildly frustrating (and while the official jury is out about whether or not it's intended to be humiliating and mildly frustrating, my take is YES, IT ABSOLUTELY IS INTENDED THAT WAY) and all for Not Very Much.
Of course, to get a job, there need to be jobs available. Also, jobs that pay enough to be worth giving up the hours that they require one to give up in exchange for money. Which no conservative politician has ever recognised in the history of humanity.
Also, apparently you have to actually 'lose your job' to get American unemployment - retrenchment, redundancy, etc., while I think all you need here is simply not to have a job.
Apparently although I don't have to do the 'payment requirements' right now - proving that I've applied for jobs upon jobs upon jobs - I haven't actually 'reported on my income' for the last couple of months, which you have to do every fortnight in order to be paid. I called up the office and got it fixed in about 20 minutes.
Also: in a chat with US friends yesterday, I realised that what Australians think of as unemployment is not quite the same as what Americans think of as unemployment.
eg. The Aussie dole is paid for (I believe) by income tax and available to anyone at what is pretty much a flat rate. If I was earning $15K a year and now am collecting the dole, I'm paid the same amount as someone who was earning $150K a year before they lost their job and started collecting the dole.
The thing is, after one has been earning $150K a year, one doesn't want to live on the flat rate they offer. I'd much rather be working full time (actually, I'd much rather be working part-time) and being paid considerably more than 'living on the dole'. It's humiliating and mildly frustrating (and while the official jury is out about whether or not it's intended to be humiliating and mildly frustrating, my take is YES, IT ABSOLUTELY IS INTENDED THAT WAY) and all for Not Very Much.
Of course, to get a job, there need to be jobs available. Also, jobs that pay enough to be worth giving up the hours that they require one to give up in exchange for money. Which no conservative politician has ever recognised in the history of humanity.
Also, apparently you have to actually 'lose your job' to get American unemployment - retrenchment, redundancy, etc., while I think all you need here is simply not to have a job.
no subject
It would also change the power structure throughout the workplace: bad companies, bad employers, bad managers would never be tolerated. Employees might have to be treated as...gasp...people.
And the dirty work that's hard and harsh? To get people to do it, they'd have to be paid commensurate with the effort and time.
There are not many countries where the idea wouldn't uproot the fabric of society's sense of superiority, and the US isn't one of them. (Australia probably isn't one either, sadly.)