By Living in Glenelg, I get to the beach most days and I always take a picture for Instagram. Unfortunately I’m not here just for the beach life; they only let me stay in the country on a 457 Visa to work. So here’s a few observations about working in South Australia.
We’re paid fortnightly. Leave “loading” means you get paid very slightly more for being on holiday than for being at work! Salary sacrifice means that you get to buy stuff before being taxed. “Super” is, as far as I can tell, a totally non-contributory pension scheme of sorts. Tax is just tax ( there’s no National Insurance pretending to be something other).
You don’t have instant access to annual leave; instead you have to accrue it month by month. There’s a thing called long service leave- three months off after five years, six after ten. This partly makes up for the slightly (but not as bad as America) stingy annual leave allowance. Paid sick leave is the same- you have to accrue it over time, so I can’t catch the flu for at least another six months! But there are loads of public holidays: all the usual (Christian/pagan) religious ones plus Australia Day, Adelaide Cup Day (for a horse race), Anzac Day, Labour Day, the Queen’s Birthday (now there’s an argument for the monarchy) and of course, Proclamation Day, commemorating the founding of this curious State.
There’s lots of work-life balancing: flexi-time, rostered days off (RDO), compressed hours. I’m doing a “nine day fortnight”, meaning that for working a bit longer each day, I get the tenth day off. The none-day fortnight remains an aspiration. Then life truly would be a beach.
Dr D in Oz 
Run that “salary sacrifice” thing past me more slowly. How does it work?
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I’m allowed up to $9k of living expenses annually, e.g. rent before I pay tax, so tax free. Also applies for cars, phones, computers. Works out about $110 of free money a fortnight.
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