Australian wages are set by law, employers can exceed them but cannot pay less. Part of the reason why Australians don’t tip.
At the moment the minimum wage is $24.95 per hour (£12.50) for full time 38 hour week. Casual workers get a 25% loading on top of that (to compensate them for holiday pay and sick pay). That’s a catch all wage, most people will be on an award
Hospitality workers will have their own award (which will be higher)
In the old days you’d get a mug of Nescafe served by an old dear in a pinny and a fag in her mouth.
I think they should scrap the minimum wage and everyone gets paid what they are worth.
No minimum wage in my day, bosses paid what they liked and everyone was happy and service with a smile…Then came along big monopolies and drove the little guy out of business with lots of shareholders (who probably live in another country) to satisfy. Nobody cares about the customer anymore because they get paid anyway. In a family run establishment they were proud of their name and did their best to serve the customer, slack attitudes by the staff would not be tolerated, and the boss would probably be working alongside them.
You’re the chap in the dirty mac who kept winking at me and making me drop my ash !!
I know some jobs are poorly paid but hasn’t it always been thus?
But … I was always taught to do your best, be pleasant and give 100%.
Are you back having coffee in McDonalds? If so, then this chap is working in the very definition of a McJob. And you expect him to be delighted at that?
Just a thought…if he’s a new hire, most probably he hasn’t made any friends yet.
Sometimes, making an effort to welcome him to the company and include him at break time may encourage him to try a smile or two.
Not at Maccas, I am at a local cafe.
It is a small cafe with 4 employees.
Individual break times, no chance of including him at break time.
That’s way down on my retrospective fantasy list ! 
If it was a UK coffee shop I’d say he has been sent by the ‘Jobcentre’ or he will lose his benefits.
If he gets the sack he will be able to go back on the dole…
What’s a typical UK coffee shop Foxy?
Hi
Observing people in Coffee Shops is not just a hobby.
It can be a highly technical way of earning a well paid living.
It is also strictly regulated here in the UK, we even have a very specific law controlling it .
RIPA, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
Known otherwise as the" Pain in the Arse" Act.
A pile of paperwork and delays to allow you to do something which needs to be done on the spot so it an be used in Evidence against a planned murderous attack.
Apologies for being so vitriolic about it,but it costs lives.
Yes , but in those days, the Boss lived next door 
He might be depressed.
Is that society’s problem?
He got a job, what’s not to like.
Is it our place to judge what someone is going through? A lot of young people are depressed and struggling with a modern world with so many challenges and a bit of a bleak future.
You will NEVER see an adult working at Maccas (unless it is a manager), Macca’s staff have an award but workers under 21 get a percentage of the adult award under Junior pay rates (all the other award conditions are the same). eg a 17 year old gets 60% of the adult wage in a lot of awards.
Maccas, Dominoes, Pizza Hut etc only employ under 21s, it gives the young people a very good job to be able to put on their CV and save the chain a bit in wages. Two of my kids started at Pizza Hut when they were still at school.
I learned this when I applied for my very first Technician’s job in Australia in the 1960s, at the interview the bloke asked my age, at the time I was 19 which I said. “Sorry”, he said “I didn’t hear you, did you say 21?”. He wrote down 21 and told me to always say I am at least 21 so I get a full adult wage.
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay-and-wages/minimum-wages/junior-pay-rates
