There has been a lot of political talk about changes to the 457 visa.
With many figures floating around our authors have created an infographic highlighting changes to the 457 visa including:
- Trends of the 457 visa
- Application prices
- Minimum wage requirements.
The infographic above highlights that substantial changes to the 457 visa application process from 1st of July 2013. This was part of pre-election policy changes by the previous labour government. It highlights how the price of a 457 visa application almost doubled on the 1st of July for a single person. This increase was more dramatic for families as each person stated in the 457 visa application are now charged (children at a reduced rate) making a family application of two adults and two children now $2,250 (an increase of just over 400%.
According to the Australian Government the price increases was to offset the costs of processing the 457 visa applications. There were many skeptics that questioned this was the real motivation with a federal election only months away and jobs to foreign residents becoming a heated issues for both Australian parties. One key lobby group that was pushing for these increases and caps on 457 visa holders was the Australian Unions who felt that the current system was abused with 457 visa holders been approved in sectors that had no scarcity of labour and were only used to push down industry wages.
There were many other changes on the 1st of July including an increase in the minimum wage a 457 visa holder must receive. This was based on CPI and wage data across Australia and the aim of setting a wage is to ensure that 457 visa holders really must be skilled labour rather then just ‘cheap labour.