The Minimum Wage In Australia Is Lit For Working Holiday Visa Makers

Darryl Newby

Posted On 30 October 2018

Wherever you are in the world I can promise you I know the most stressful part of travelling, 100% of the time, without a doubt. MONEY.

I mean packing and the actual travelling (overnight buses, sleeping in airports, hitchhiking) part definitely make the list, but budget, money and it’s restrictions will always be number one.

The very nature of travellers is always to want to do more, see more, explore more, eat more and yes….drink more and this is very hard on a backpacking budget.

Buried in that money problem is knowing how something is worth and how much converts to what. Well here I’m going to give you a FREE TRAVEL HACK and this one is perfect for budgeting in the said country you’re in.

But don’t worry, we have done all the hard work for you.

But if you have clicked on the link you can see, it tells you the price from a chicken breast in the market to a mid-range meal for 2. It’s perfect!

Now, I’m going to get back to that shortly and while you carry on being impressed by the wonders of that site, I’m going to impress you once more before revisiting that site and subject and impressing again. A lot of promising to impress here isn’t there?

The current minimum wage in Australia is $19.49AUD, which is actually the highest minimum wage in the world!

That’s the equivalent of:

Impressive. Very impressive when the minimum in those countries (for peopled aged 21 and over) are:

Now lets remember, that’s the MINIMUM. You could be earning higher.

So let’s look at what does that actually get you per hour of work?

People often use the Big Mac method, how many minutes/hours do you have to work for a Big Mac in your country. We’d use that but we’re WAY above comparing against McDonald’s… ONLY JOKING, here I am doing the breakdown.

So now let’s look at a beer🍺. How many minutes on minimum wage do you have to work for a beer in your country?

We’ve gone with Melbourne in Australia and the major cities of each country to make it fair.

0.5 Litres Of Domestic Beer

So out of all 5 comparisons only one country comes close to beating Australia and that’s Germany…and we all know how much they love their beer. 

Date Night

Want to take someone out on a date on your travels? No worries. A 3 course meal for 2 at a mid range restaurant we’re talking:

Gym Time

Want to keep fit while travelling? Let’s look at a gym price for one month:

Have you noticed a trend yet? This is pretty damn good isn’t it? Well not if you’re American.

Now all of these prices are based on not just anywhere in Australia either, they’re based on the prices of Melbourne, the 2nd most liveable City in the World. This is probably one of the reasons why I imagine?

Not only is there the monetary value and benefits to travelling, you’re naturally going to grow as a person too. You’re going out of your comfort zone, you’re experiencing new things, meeting new people, trying new things and growing as person daily. It’s an absolute win-win.

So tell me folks, after your long day at work today.

Where would you rather be on minimum wage? At home, or on a working holiday in a place where every weekend feels like a break and the beaches look like this?

Silly question right?

Written By

Darryl Newby

Travelled to Australia from the UK in 2010 for what was supposed to be a 6 month visit…that didn’t quite go to plan. He now calls Melbourne home, co-founded Welcome to Travel and is a proud dog dad to his pug, Harvey.

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