u/Giplord

From Fair Works website : https://www.fwc.gov.au/about-us/history-sir-richard-kirby-archives/waltzing-matilda-and-sunshine-harvester-factory-0

"In the Harvester Decision, Justice Higgins of the Arbitration Court decided that 7 shillings a day, or 42 shillings a week, was fair and reasonable wages for an unskilled labourer.

This became the basis of the national minimum wage system in Australia.

It was a ‘living’ or ‘family’ wage, set at a level which would supposedly allow an unskilled labourer to support a wife and three children, to feed, house, and clothe them. By the 1920s it applied to over half of the Australian workforce. It became known as the ‘basic wage’."

Today's minimum wage is $49,296. I'm going out on a limb and suggesting that sub $50k wouldn't today support a family of 5 and "feed, house and clothe" them.

I understand that we are now in a age of 2 incomes, and that's probably most of the issue, but how the hell are we so far behind a decision made in 1907 with today's minimum wage?