A$25-an-hour waiters threaten growth in Australia, but reform carries political risks

Canberra

AWARD-WINNING chef Ben Willis would have no trouble filling his Canberra restaurant on Sundays. It's been voted the best in the Australian capital three years running.

But faced with a A$25.94 (S$26.94)-an-hour wage bill even for trainee waiters under Australia's complex system of pay rates, he says it makes no financial sense to open.

"These restrictions to business are so out of date," said Mr Willis, 40, of the so-called penalty rates that double wages for Sunday shifts in some service industries. "It's a changing market place and a changing society."

The issue is coming to the fore in an economy experiencing its weakest run of growth since the 1991 recession and with unemployment matching an almost 13-year high. Yet two years after being elected on a pro-business agenda, Prime Minister Tony Abbott's government is showing…