The Easter weekend is here, but for those running small businesses four days off isn’t always a good thing. An extra long weekend can either mean significantly higher costs to operate or running at a loss.
The most significant cost is wages. Generally speaking, the penalty rate for working on a public holiday in Australia is 250% of the ordinary hourly rate. This means that those paid on the minimum wage would see a pay boost from $23.23 to $58.07 an hour. Though the extra moolah is a helpful incentive for those poor souls stuck at work, with four days of public holidays in a row, expenses can quickly add up.
Business owner Brandon Martignago told PEDESTRIAN.TV that this can affect many businesses, especially outside the cities.
In a kind of catch-22, businesses often lose money if they open, and lose money if they close.
“All the business in hospitality are struggling with increased prices in cost of goods, rental increases, electric bills. The first thing they’re going to cut is wages,” he said.
“A lot of businesses are just closing because they either don’t have the funds or can’t make sure the weekend makes them any money.”
Martignago, who runs a restaurant and a small bar in Sydney, said trading rules around serving alcohol on Good Friday only add to the headache.
The laws vary state to state, but generally speaking venues can only supply alcohol for fewer hours than normal, and only if it is served with a meal.
What’s more, the meal must be “substantial”, must be prepared and eaten on the premises and those buying alcohol can only do so from one hour before to one hour after eating.
“Small bars often aren’t required to have food within their licence and therefore don’t because their space doesn’t allow it, or have minimal food like bread or olives and so can’t comply with this law,” Martignago said.
“In the past we’ve had to make sandwiches, but in a small bar people are coming to us before and after dinner. And people will come to us and be like ‘but we’ve just eaten’.”
However sandwiches wouldn’t pass in Queensland, where the law states that a meal must be one “eaten with cutlery while seated”, and specifically rules out “light takeaway food like snacks, hot chips, an entree or kid’s meal”.
All this, Martignago says, makes it particularly tough on those who need the hours most, and many businesses will simply choose not to open. And with inflation so high, Martignago said the past few years had been tougher than ever.
So if you are out and about this long weekend, be nice to the bar staff (no doubt they need it), and don’t balk at the holiday surcharge. And if you aren’t sure what is open, you can peep our list here!
