On the 1st of July 2014 the National Fairwork Comission reviewed and granted a 3% wage rise for those on the minimum wage. This equates to $18.70 extra per week. Yippeeee !!! (or perhaps not)

I didn’t need a calculator to work out the yearly pay increase is about $972.40 PER YEAR….. The reason l did not need a calculator is quite simply because we are working with such small numbers.

Considering a packet of smokes just went up by between $1.12 and $2.81 a packet. If you smoke a pack a day (as many do) you are looking at a weekly additional cost of at least $7.84

Petrol prices are always bouncing around, but always end up higher even though the price of oil (per barrel) may be at a 4 year low. But let’s be “VERY” conservative and say petrol goes up on average by 5 cents per year. If you buy 20 litres a week that’s another Dollar you will have lost fuel to price hikes (and who only needs 20 litres a week) many of us go through 20 litres of fuel in one day.

Electricity has seemingly been going up and up and up for quite some time….. and if you are in Queensland you would have seen an increase of about 13.5% this year. If your average electricity bill was $300 a quarter (again very modest) you will have seen it rise to about $340 per quarter which is an extra $13,50 per month or $162.00 per year

Above are just a few common and easily discussed goods/services which have risen in price this year. Obviously just about everything we eat, drink, use and/or rely upon is going up in cost all of the time…. It dosnt take too long to realise that a pay increase of $972.40 per year for those on the minimum wage is never going to be enough to get ahead….. Sorry to disappoint but those on minimal wages are just falling further and further behind.

Ok giving up smokes would help the weekly budget and also be much better for your own health, but no one should be forced to leave the heater off in winter simply because they can not afford to turn it on