The tale of the $7 coffee. At the height of a boom, a local entrepreneur sets up shop with a vision to bring a cosmopolitan café culture to the city centre of a mining town. His fit out alone costs more than double what it would cost in a metropolitan area, as materials are expensive, and labour is hard to come by. Locals love the vibe, they love the coffee, but the prices are hard to swallow for many. But how else can our café owner afford the overheads in this town? The constant cycling through staff who are forced to move on due to unsustainable living costs, the high wages necessary to compete for labour with resource sector giants, the mark ups on goods, inflated insurance costs, fluctuating rental prices. Without passing these costs onto customers, our café owner cannot run a profitable business in the region. But high costs hurt business and result in many local operators closing doors prematurely in response to boom vs. bust realities.
And it’s the same across industries – childcare, construction, beauty, retail, hospitality, and the list goes on. Those unable to access employer-provided salary packaging benefits are discriminated against as they must work harder and pay more out of pocket to live within these communities – despite being valuable contributors to the social, cultural, and economic fabric of the cities and towns.