Hmm.
First thing, I've got the education departments of all Australian
states except NSW as my clients. I do have job satisfaction data on
schools across these states, and my data shows that while teachers
in some schools do report low satisfaction, it's due to factors in
specific schools, not the education system overall.
Also, I do know quite a few teachers who have gone overseas to
teach. Most often, they've ended up in the Middle East, where
private schools offer them five times their government salary. I
dare say that if a Singaporean government employee was offered
$300,000 to do his $60,000 job, he'd take off too.
Second, the tax article in the Australian refers to a figure that's
nearly doubled from 4.8%, referring to 9.6% of the Australian
population - hardly a majority by any measure. Also, you may not
know this, but over the years the tax brackets have actually gotten
wider, which means that you have to earn more to move into the next
bracket.
What does this add up to? There are now more and more people
getting into that top tax bracket, which itself is higher than it
used to be. Is that really bad news?
What's it mean in real terms? In the past week I've spent coming to
four grand on Christmas presents, with more to come over the next
few days, but I'm not feeling any pinch whatsoever. Hell, about
half that amount was paid by the Tax Office when I got my tax
returns.
