Time to update my resume.

So, I'll just be honest here, I make $19.25 an hour working as a temp for one of my jobs (Employer A) through the agency. I know it looks like a lot to people back at home where a job paying $10 is like the holy grail right now, but here in Australia, $19.25 is like making minimum wage.

To draw a few comparisons, Employer A pays me $19.25 to audit their account records, liaise with clients, organize their records, edit articles, write content for their website, sell products, code up content for the website, check invoices, file order forms, and keep the manager organized (cause she kind of needs it). Employer B (my other job) pays me $25 an hour to make contact sheets of potential clients, random editing, print things, stuff envelopes and occasionally make something creative for marketing. I do arguably 10x more work for Employer A than Employer B.

Furthermore, I've been working for Employer A a total of six months while Employer B has only had me for three. For Employer A, I actually fill a real vacant position; for Employer B, I really just pick up the odds and ends around the office.

Why the huge pay difference?

Considering that I've been doing SO MUCH work for Employer A and have even got them credited $8,000 because I have such a great eye for detail (at work, I should add--not blogging), I really felt I deserved more money than that. Not to mention, my manager was saying I should be paid more too and was urging me to get the agency to increase my pay (unfortunately it's not her decision or else I'd be hired permanently).

So I called the agency to tell them I want a raise and what I found out kind of made me sick. They said that on Wednesday, they called the director at Employer A who oversees my department and whom I've work closely with on many projects, and when they told her that the federal award for clerical work has been increased to $20 an hour (meaning that's the new minimum wage for my kind of position), the director tried to argue with them. Not matter what the agency said about it not being an option but a federal law, she still wouldn't accept the increase. She even asked the agency to find someone else who would work at $19.25!! For a company the size of Employer A (a rather large international one), there is no reason why they can't swallow 75cents to keep a loyal, hardworking, over-qualified and under-paid person to do a job they really need a permanent employee to fill.

I'm seriously so insulted. I work so damn hard there because they are so understaffed and ridiculously disorganized and there is absolutely no thanks. Despite all of my hard work and the fact that I'm actually bringing money back to the department (pretty much the only one really), they're willing to just ditch me over 75cents!!

With my visa situation, it's so hard to get good work to begin with and just as hard to find a temp position for more than one day a week and lasting more than two weeks. Even harder to find an employer that shows you any kind of appreciation, is professional, or isn't a hostile work environment.So do I quit and wait for something to pay me better even though it may take months? Do I stay because at least it's some work even though I secretly know my hard work is worth less than a dollar to them? Or do I quit temping all together and just go look for something else that may have me working nights and weekends, or worse, I never get a response to my application like everywhere else?

I feel like I just can't get a break in Sydney. I have had nothing but problems with work the entire year I've been here. I just want to work some place where people care about their job, about their employees and about their clients. I want to work some place where I feel valued and where I actually enjoy working.

I don't know what to do. I guess I just get my resume ready and hope it doesn't take too long to find a real solution.