Journal no. 3

i'm back in Perth and had a job interview today... i applied to be a kitchenhand at a place that manufactures food (like sushi) for supermarkets.
i checked out the company and the guy who emailed me is the co-owner, so it seems legit.
i was still wary and procrastinated calling the guy, but in the end i did and he said to go for a "short chat" as soon as possible.

i arrived at the place at 11.30 am and it was a building beside other food suppliers.
stepping into the reception, it looked very plain and simple. a young Asian girl was writing something at the desk. i could see white coats working with sandwich bread in the food prep area behind the glass window. the co-owner's office looked a lot like my dad's home office. lol. it was very messy.

he was friendly and remembered that i went back to Singapore for a holiday. he asked about my favorite food and school/work arrangements. then he said i can only work 20 hours a week, so it's probably 2 to 7 pm. then he told me to go back tomorrow at 2 pm and they will tell me about "washing your hands and all that". i asked about the pay and he didn't seem to know. "oh, it's lots," he said, checking on the computer. then he said it was $20 an hour and more on weekends. **ka-ching**

so i starting daydreaming about all the money i could have if i did 20 hours every week for $20/hour, up till the day i left Australia. it might add up to $10,000... then i remembered the tax thing...

i checked it out and was shocked. the lowest tax rate is 19% for income above $18,200 a year (July to June).
in Singapore it starts from 2% for income above $20,000. that's surprisingly low. and it was actually 3.5% in 2011.
in Sweden, where taxes are famously high, it seems to start from above 20%...
in USA, it starts from 10%. and their threshold is really low too - about $8,900.

blimey! where does Australia's tax money go?