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New minimum healthy living budget standards for low-paid and unemployed Australians
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2023
Abstract
A budget standard indicates how much a particular family living in a particular place at a particular time needs in order to achieve a particular standard of living. This article presents new estimates that build on the earlier budget standards produced by the Social Policy Research Centre in the 1990s. The new budgets incorporate increases in consumer prices and community standards and reflect changes in item availability, retail practices and shopping behaviour, as well as improved research methods, 20 years of use and experience, and new data. They are designed to achieve a minimum income for healthy living standard and apply to families with a breadwinner who is either in full-time work and receiving the minimum wage, or unemployed and receiving Newstart Allowance. The estimates suggest that although the minimum wage is adequate for single people, it is not adequate to meet the needs of many couple families with and without children, while Newstart Allowance does not provide an adequate safety net for the unemployed, whatever their family status.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 29 , Issue 3: Work and well-being: Setting and upholding standards , September 2018 , pp. 273 - 288
- Copyright
- © The Author(s) 2018
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