Australia has a lot of public holidays. Here in South Australia, we get about 14 a year, sometimes more when Christmas or Boxing Day lands on a weekend. I used to love them. Employees get paid for public holidays, and don’t have to work. If you do work, you get paid between 200% and 250% of your base rate. Now that I’m retired and on a part pension I don’t get paid extra for doing the same thing as I do every other day. As an employee I used to get paid extra to go on annual leave, usually 17.5% more. I don’t get paid any extra now when I go on holidays. And then there is long service leave. As an employee, after 10 years, I’d get 13 weeks of long service leave paid at my normal salary, no loading. I figure I’m not going to bother claiming that because a normal day would be exactly the same as a long service leave day. So, after all that, as a retiree the only difference between any day and a public holiday is that most of the shops are closed. And that’s why I don’t like them. Because I never remember when they’re coming up so I’m not prepared. Like yesterday. Regards, P.S. Now that my income is fixed, and because I always liked the extra moolah, I’ve had to change my ways a bit. That means I’m more focused on online business. It’s easy to go to lunch, visit friends, shop. Drifting through the days is far too easy. But that won’t bring in any extra cash. So I’ve been using this to make sure I do what needs doing every day, public holiday or not. |
