<story><title>Australian state sets minimum pay for Amazon contractors</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/australian-state-sets-minimum-pay-amazon-contractors-landmark-step-2022-02-18/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>AussieWog93</author><text>More in-depth article on The Guardian here:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;australia-news&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;feb&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;amazon-flex-drivers-in-nsw-win-minimum-hourly-pay-rate&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;australia-news&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;feb&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;amazo...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most importantly, they only need to pay ~$27&amp;#x2F;hr immediately.&lt;p&gt;This seems OK at first, as it is above the ~$25&amp;#x2F;hr minimum wage for casuals (note to non-Aussies: this figure includes a 25% &amp;quot;casual loading&amp;quot; to account for the fact that there is no sick leave, annual leave or guaranteed minimum hours).&lt;p&gt;However, this doesn&amp;#x27;t consider the fact that the drivers supply their own vehicle as well as out-of-pocket expenses for fuel, maintenance and general depreciation on the vehicle itself.  When you take these additional costs into consideration, that initial ~$27 looks closer to an illegally low ~$20&amp;#x2F;hr.&lt;p&gt;The fact that they were both unpunished for finding loopholes in employment law as well as given a free pass to continue for another 3 years (despite literally being Amazon and therefore having the working capital to pay their drivers properly immediately) looks like it&amp;#x27;s a win for them.</text></comment>
<story><title>Australian state sets minimum pay for Amazon contractors</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/australian-state-sets-minimum-pay-amazon-contractors-landmark-step-2022-02-18/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>roenxi</author><text>The &amp;quot;independent contractor&amp;quot; thing has always been a fairly transparent ploy at not calling workers &amp;quot;workers&amp;quot;. The ruling sounds fairly logical. This is presumably the primary source [0] from a reliable location.&lt;p&gt;Although not reliable enough to get the title character encoding right.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.austlii.edu.au&amp;#x2F;cgi-bin&amp;#x2F;viewdoc&amp;#x2F;au&amp;#x2F;cases&amp;#x2F;nsw&amp;#x2F;NSWIRComm&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;1003.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.austlii.edu.au&amp;#x2F;cgi-bin&amp;#x2F;viewdoc&amp;#x2F;au&amp;#x2F;cases&amp;#x2F;nsw&amp;#x2F;NSWI...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>