Hairdressers Get A Cut

Illawarra Mercury

Friday August 14, 1998

Thirroul hairdressers Debbie May and Stacey English spend their lives cutting - and now they'll get a little cut of their own.

Debbie, 28, a hairdresser for 12 years, and Stacey, 19, a fourth-year apprentice, will each receive tax cuts of three per cent if voters re-elect the Howard Government.

With gross yearly incomes of about $32,000 and $25,000 respectively, Debbie and Stacey would be smack bang in the middle of the new $20,001-$50,000 bracket, where the tax rate would be 30 per cent.

That new bracket and rate would replace the $20,701-$38,000 bracket - taxed at 34 per cent - which they are in now.

The tax package would give Debbie about $17 a week more in the hand, and Stacey about $13.

Neither woman knows whether that would compensate for a 10 per cent GST.

Stacey, of Warilla, said income tax cuts were an obvious plus but needed to be weighed up against price rises which remained an unknown quantity.