Japonica

Well, considering the minimum wage is supposed to be $15/hr then I can see how all those Muffin Break employees who say they are only getting $8/hr casual are ticked off...

And yes, there are options re: chain food and the like, but even "regular" (local, non-chain) restaurants were often more affordable than their counterparts here. It's no surprise that we have more money at the end of the month here than we did in Canada. Part of that, no doubt, is that there's less incentive to spend it on take away restaurant meals, nights out etc. when to do so takes a huge bite out of the budget (bad pun).

ExKiwilass

I agree with you Japonica, I find Canada more affordable/higher living standard than Oz. ANd not all of Canada is -37 just like not all of Australia is 40+

Rambi

Exactly.

Also, as the 40s come with low humidity they're not as bad as they could be.

The only real problem with the 40s is the fire risk.

And before people take that to the extreme a lot of people die in the extreme cold as well.

ozzieeagle

Checked it out, mainly because of my union background. Your 8 dollar figure is correct. Although its 8.24 for Juniors 16 years and under. 17 - 18 years old is 11.95 per hour.... 13.95 for 18 years. 19 is where it gets interesting... as its 16.48.. maybe all the managers are 19 Years old ?

If they are an Adult manager they should be getting a minimum of 17.29 an hour Permanent part time... or 21.61 casual... if Muffin break is employing them as managers and not paying this rate, then they can be fined 33,000 Aud.

Gotta love the Aus unions It's a national award BTW and the employees dont have to be in a Union to be fully entitled to the award wage. Muffin Break have to comply with this wage structure as do all retail outlets.

One letter from Slater and Gordon, would probably entitle most of their so called managers to heaps of back pay, by the looks.

fish.01

The Aud$15 minimum wage is for australian adults as opposed to Cad$8.80 for adults in Alberta. This difference in pay is bound to be reflected in prices. On average, it's bound to all work out similar given it is all supply and demand in the end.

commonwealth

for me it's all about the climate. the other considerations are immaterial. quality of living in these 2 countries are almost the same if you look at liveability rankings. when you think of day-to-day living, climate is the tie-breaker. i don't travel overseas all the time so i dont care where australia is located.

xxdb

I think that's a really hard one to answer and part of the difficulty is that a fair chunk of people who emigrate are of the sort who can never really settle anywhere. They don't feel at home back home and don't feel at home in their new place either. But that's a generalization lol.

I don't know a lot about Australia but the house prices seem to be pretty high compared to Canada and I personally think the house prices here are stupid. Of course the house prices back home are even more stupid than in Canada so it's relative but I'm comparing what I was making 10 years ago to what I'm making now (no difference) and the price of houses in all three places. On that basis Canada probably comes out slightly ahead.

The people in Canada, however, are definitely alien in their way of thinking from the point of view of most Brtis and it takes quite a while to get into it. I suspect some people never will. Canadians tend to be very standoffish and do not become too too friendly very quickly though they will be very polite. I've posted on why I think that might be on the Canadian forum (though other posters have had different experiences). I suspect that Ozzies might be more like us (but is that necessarilly a good thing lol) based on the couple of dozen or so Ozzies I've worked with in my career. On the other hand the handful of Canadian friends I can count as friends are still my friends even after 15-20 years whereas I've had intense, short friendships with people back home who I never hear from once I move out of the area. So all in all it's swings and roundabouts.

In terms of standard of living, originally for me in the 1990s Canada had a much higher standard of living than the UK. That's eroded somewhat now. My quality of life is a little bit worse than it was when I was last in the UK. Even then, I'm nowhere near starving and we're doing fine here. And in any case maybe things would be a lot worse if I'd stayed so who knows.

As for climate. Yeah the winters are seriously long here. With the possible exception of vancouver it's definitely indoors for at least six months. The summer in Southern Ontario is awesome and the climate is like the South of France. In Southern Alberta not so much. Although it's drier and a little bit warmer than the UK in the afternoons from may to about october, the nights are pretty chilly even in the summer time which is wierd to my way of thinking. The winter although the averages are lower in Southern Alberta is worse in Ontario because you don't get a break in Ontario. In Southern Alberta the temperature is very erratic in the winter. Some days it's +10C and other days it's -30C. In Ontario it tends to stick around -10C to -!5C for what feels like six months straight.

Today (may 2011) I don't find the prices of things to be cheaper here in Southern Alberta than back in the UK with the possible exception of steak (which is excellent). Though gasoline is half the price, it's more than made up for by driving longer distances and lower MPG. You get killed on car insurance here. With the possible exception of London, I can't honestly say that prices of restaurants or services are higher back home.

As to the poster who was bitching that the cost of travel from OZ is too high, well there's no ryanair here either. Westjet isn't that cheap. About the cheapest is going to Las Vegas. But there's only so many times you can do that. There just doesn't seem to be a cheap holiday market here. Everything is tailored for the high end. People seem to go camping in the national parks rather than take foreign holidays unless they are upper middle class (I'm talking about an accountant married to a doctor here).

To put it into perspective: most of the people I've been to uni with back home have visited several different countries including some exotic ones. You will rarely find that with Canadians unless like I said they are upper middle class.

That said, I love Canada. The standard of living is just fine. The winters are long and freezing but then again I don't recall doing very much back home in winter either so that doesn't really make much difference.

I'd love the illusion of the beach, sun and sand lifestyle in OZ especially when I'm stuck in traffic in -35C in january and I have to shovel 3 foot of snow off my driveway when I get home but from the sounds of the house prices and stories like you can't go fishing in the river in case you get eaten by a crocodile (eeek!) it kind of gives me pause for thought.

The good thing about back home on the other hand, is the holidays. The quality of life isn't that bad back home. The weather is shite and the incessant whining of everybody about how bad things are eventually leaks into your soul and you start to believe it. The bitchiness at work I hate too. But it's made up for by the ability to just jump on ryanair and go somewhere warm and foreign for a few days.

In the end you pays your money and you takes your chances because there's no perfect place.

januarymix

:sunglasses:

calliope

I could never afford to buy a house in Australia with these prices and there isn't any sign of them returning to an affordable level. They run a lot of stories on them in the TV media but it's just hot air. The Government recently cut interest rates so that shows how much they care about making houses affordable.

fish.01

Down to $429,339 median in Brisbane at the moment...I wonder how that compares to a 2 million pop city in Canada?

Japonica

Well, metro Vancouver is 2.1 million (2006) and their median price for the greater Vancouver area is $662,955 (October 2011). But then Vancouver is a class of its own, right? Maybe someone with info on a similar sized city out east will have info.

I'm always amazed at the expats who want to move and buy a house in Van right off the bat. They must be pretty wealthy. I've seen what $400,000 will buy in some neighborhoods...ack!

calliope

Same here. You would not want to live in anything that costs less than $400,000 and I can't even afford that. A nice three bedroom house with a reasonable garden in my area costs between 600k and 800k, but that is close to the ocean. Rents are going up as well. When I first got here they were cheap but now three bed houses go for $2000 per month at the very basic end of the market.

fish.01

Vancouver seems like a special case....always mega expensive.

fish.01

Yeah, that seems expensive...that is certainly not Australia wide.

DeadVim

An Australian win by an innings, Canada are improving but have a way to go.