Choice and the impact of changes to Sunday premiums in the Australian retail and hospitality industries
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Author(s)
Peetz, David
Bruynius, Scott
Murray, Georgina
Year published
2019
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We assess the effects of reductions in wage premiums (‘penalty rates’) for Sunday work and some of the ideas underpinning them, first by reference to evidence from official and other quantitative data about its likely impact, and second by reference to qualitative data concerning the nature of the choices available to Sunday workers in those industries. We investigate who retail and hospitality employees are (e.g. are they mostly students who can ‘afford’ a cut in penalty rates?). We then find significant and widespread income losses arising from cuts to penalty rates, even after allowing for contested employment gains, ...
View more >We assess the effects of reductions in wage premiums (‘penalty rates’) for Sunday work and some of the ideas underpinning them, first by reference to evidence from official and other quantitative data about its likely impact, and second by reference to qualitative data concerning the nature of the choices available to Sunday workers in those industries. We investigate who retail and hospitality employees are (e.g. are they mostly students who can ‘afford’ a cut in penalty rates?). We then find significant and widespread income losses arising from cuts to penalty rates, even after allowing for contested employment gains, though we cannot quantify all possibilities, such as the potential effects of ‘loaded rates’ (though if implemented these would intensify losses for people working public holidays or Sundays). Many workers in retail and hospitality were under financial pressure, had little ‘control’ or found Sunday work difficult, but some were concerned about the effects of refusing Sunday work. Our study has implications for the meaning of ‘choice’ and contributes to understanding uncertainty regarding labour supply behaviour amongst low-income workers.
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View more >We assess the effects of reductions in wage premiums (‘penalty rates’) for Sunday work and some of the ideas underpinning them, first by reference to evidence from official and other quantitative data about its likely impact, and second by reference to qualitative data concerning the nature of the choices available to Sunday workers in those industries. We investigate who retail and hospitality employees are (e.g. are they mostly students who can ‘afford’ a cut in penalty rates?). We then find significant and widespread income losses arising from cuts to penalty rates, even after allowing for contested employment gains, though we cannot quantify all possibilities, such as the potential effects of ‘loaded rates’ (though if implemented these would intensify losses for people working public holidays or Sundays). Many workers in retail and hospitality were under financial pressure, had little ‘control’ or found Sunday work difficult, but some were concerned about the effects of refusing Sunday work. Our study has implications for the meaning of ‘choice’ and contributes to understanding uncertainty regarding labour supply behaviour amongst low-income workers.
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Journal Title
Journal of Industrial Relations
Copyright Statement
David Peetz, Scott Bruynius and Georgina Murray, Choice and the impact of changes to Sunday premiums in the Australian retail and hospitality industries, Journal of Industrial Relations, 61 (5), pp. 657–681. Copyright 2019 The Authors. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
Note
This publication has been entered into Griffith Research Online as an Advanced Online Version.
Subject
Commercial services
Applied economics