Sundays are sacred.
And not just for the religious among us.
Sunday is a day of rest and recuperation. A day of spending quality time with family and friends. A day that finally provides that bit of time you need to get to an odd-job around the house, or do some exercise, or go shopping, or cook up a big batch of meals to get you through the busy week ahead.
For many reasons, Sundays are special.
Which is why people who work on Sundays get paid more per hour than they would working a weekday.
Because if they weren’t working, we wouldn’t be able to brunch, shop, catch public transport, or be attended to at hospital if we had a medical emergency.
But now, the government wants to ditch penalty rates.
Here’s everything you need to know:
What is a penalty rate?
Employees often get paid a higher rate for working overtime and early or late shifts and weekends and public holidays.
The Sunday penalty rate – which Malcolm Turnbull has said is obsolete and will inevitably be reduced – is double the regular hourly rate.
Saturday is usually paid at a time-and-a-half (the regular rate plus half of that again, per hour).
Why does the PM want to ditch Sunday penalty rates?
Malcolm Turnbull told Melbourne’s 3AW the Sunday penalty rate was a relic from a past time and did not fit in with today’s seven-day economy.
Liberals have previously argued that reducing the double-time penalty rate for Sundays would drive business growth and employment and help reduce Australia’s high youth unemployment rate, which – at more than 13 per cent – is at its highest since 2001, Fairfax Media reports.