🗞️ Big Mac index

Good morning. The Commonwealth Games kick off in Glasgow this week, three years after Victoria walked away over blowing costs and nearly killed the event entirely.

Glasgow's version is a stripped-back one, with 3,000 athletes across 10 sports, four venues within a 12km stretch and hotels instead of an athletes' village.

Australia topped the medal table in Birmingham with 67 golds and should be near the top again, with the swimming team doing most of the lifting.

All the headlines and more below…

AUSTRALIAN MCDONALD'S WORKERS EARN 2.3 BIG MACS PER HOUR - UNCHANGED SINCE THE EARLY 2000S

How many Big Macs can a Maccas employee buy with an hour's pay? The metric tracks real purchasing power: if wages rise faster than the burger price, workers are better off; if the burger price outpaces wages, purchasing power falls even if nominal pay looks higher.

A Big Mac requires the same inputs everywhere - beef, bread, labour, rent - which strips out currency fluctuations and makes the comparison direct. While Australian nominal wages have risen, the Big Mac price has kept pace, leaving real earnings static. Workers in the US and parts of Europe have seen modest gains in Big Macs earned per hour over the same period, while emerging economies show sharper swings tied to currency instability and inflation spikes.

Anyone can contribute data to the index by visiting a McDonald's, recording prices and asking staff their hourly wage. The dataset now spans dozens of countries and multiple decades.

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

• Australia added 76,300 jobs in June as the unemployment rate stayed at 4.4% with participation rising to 67%, keeping pressure on the RBA before its August 11 rates decision. LINK

• The government has announced the creation of the Fair Work Court to sit alongside the Fair Work Commission and resolve employment disputes more quickly under expert judges. LINK

• NSW Fair Trading launched Supreme Court action against Sydney retailer Bondi United and Bondi Project over allegedly false claims that sales proceeds supported victims of the 2023 Bondi massacre. LINK

COLES CLOSES ELIZABETH STREET STORE AS VICTORIA HITS HIGHEST ORGANISED RETAIL CRIME RATE IN AUSTRALIA

Coles will close its Elizabeth Street supermarket in mid-2027 when the lease expires. The company says it's a commercial decision and is exploring a new CBD location.

Victorian teams "continue to face unacceptable levels of abuse, aggression and threatening behaviour". In May, Coles released CCTV footage showing a staff member attacked and dragged across the floor by her hair, and thieves leaving with trolleys full of unpaid food. In August, the company singled out Victoria as the state where it saw the highest share of organised retail crime by individuals who "pay no attention to the law".

The Australian Retail Council says retail crime is at elevated levels across the country, with Victoria remaining the "national hotspot". Many retailers are repeatedly targeted and "simply can't sustain the ongoing impact on their teams, their stores or their products", with some choosing to relocate or shut stores entirely.

COMPANY NEWS

• ACCC launched Federal Court action against Dusk Australasia alleging it sold or offered 66,453 non-compliant button battery homeware products across 29 lines between 2023 and 2024. LINK

• Origin Energy has confirmed unauthorised access and disclosure of some customer data after investigating an alleged breach affecting up to 2M profiles, including personal details and partial payment information. LINK

• Domino’s is carefully reviewing a Federal Court judgment that found its historical enterprise agreement representations were misleading and deceptive, underpaying a Queensland delivery driver by about US$11,869 plus interest. LINK

• July opened its biggest and most ambitious flagship store at Melbourne’s QV precinct, as the travel brand reports its largest single day of sales from the launch. LINK

• ANZ sharply reduced sign-up bonuses and perks on its Frequent Flyer Black and Platinum credit cards ahead of the RBA surcharge ban, as experts predict widespread industry cuts. LINK

• Qantas’ Project Sunrise Airbus A350-1000ULR completed a 20-hour test flight from France to Melbourne with an extra 20,000 litre fuel tank enabling up to 22-hour non-stop routes. LINK

• Google has been fined a total of €890M under EU rules as the European Commission penalises it for favouring its own services in search results, including a €460M Digital Markets Act breach. LINK

2026 AUSCORP SALARY SURVEY

Since late 2022, your employer can no longer stop you discussing your pay. But most people still have no idea what the person next to them earns. We're trying to fix that.

This is our biggest survey yet and the more people who contribute, the harder it gets for anyone to be underpaid without knowing it. Anonymous, takes 2 minutes, and the results go straight back to the community.

Slack replies in seconds. Not minutes.

Dictate into Slack, email, LinkedIn, or any app and get polished, send-ready text. Wispr Flow strips filler and formats everything. 89% of messages sent with zero edits. Works on Mac, Windows, and iPhone.

Start flowing free

CHART OF THE DAY

June and July saw moderate ship traffic in Strait of Hormuz

ONE MORE SCROLL

Editor’s Pick: A Japanese-led study has mapped about 70,000 mining sites worldwide and found mining caused 16,268 km² of forest loss since 2001.

Draft Pick: Les Kiss has named a 34-man Wallabies squad that reflects his “evolution not revolution” approach.

Doctor’s Pick: What’s worse: sugar or artificial sweeteners?

TRIVIA

How much did this 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 1600 square metre property sell for in Turramurra, NSW, sell for?

Answer below

OUR SOCIALS

ANSWER

$7 million

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here