With the Productivity Commission currently looking into Australia's workplace relations system, the future of the way Australians work is again in the spotlight.

The commission's report is due out toward the end of the year, and issues such as the minimum wage and penalty rates are likely to re-emerge in the political debate before the next election.

Australia has come a long way since a court first ruled that workers were entitled to a minimum wage in 1907.

ABC Fact Check has been looking at the changing face of the Australian workplace.

1.

Fifty years ago the expectation was that a man went to work and a woman stayed at home. But that has changed dramatically. In the years between 1961 and 2011, the proportion of women in the workforce almost doubled from 35 per cent to 59 per cent. Until 1966 married women were not employed by the Australian Public Service and single women were forced to "retire" when they married.

2.

In the 1960s Australia was moving from being a primary producer still "riding on the sheep's back" to an economy with a strong manufacturing base. In 1966 more than 25 per cent of the workforce were in manufacturing, but that's fallen in the past few decades. Now just 8 per cent of workers are in manufacturing.

3.

The rise and fall of trade unions in Australia has been dramatic. In 1912, 30 per cent of workers were members of trade unions, by 1961 that had reached 61 per cent, but by 1999 that had fallen to 26 per cent, and by 2011 it had dwindled to around 18 per cent.

Thousands of workers attended the rally but 76 were charged. ( ABC News: Pamela Medlen )

4.

Child labour was not uncommon for much of the 20th century. In 1940, 6 per cent of all factory workers were under the age of sixteen, fifteen in NSW. The number fell sharply after World War II to 2 per cent of factory workers in 1948 and less than 1 per cent by 1968 as higher levels of employment for adults let them keep their children in school and out of the workforce longer.

5.

One in 10 full-time workers in Australia earns more than an average of $2,548 per week, and one in 10 earns $800 per week or less. The rest are somewhere in between.

6.

The Australian workforce is split fairly evenly along gender lines. Of the approximately 10 million employees in Australia, 50.5 per cent are women and 49.5 per cent are men. But men still tend to earn a lot more than women - an average of $1,429.80 for male employees, compared with $940.20 for female employees. That in part is due to the number of hours worked: 76.6 per cent of men work full time compared with 43.7 per cent of women.

Miss Equal Pay in the 1967 May Day procession on Queen Street, Brisbane. ( Fryer Library, The University of Queensland: Grahame Garner )

7.

Mining is the best paid industry, where average earnings are $2,499.60 per week, compared with the lowest paid industry, accommodation and food services, where workers make an average of $561.60 per week. The largest industry is health care and social assistance, making up 12.8 per cent of employees.

8.

Managing is the best-paid occupation, with average weekly earnings of $2,113.80. Sales workers get the lowest average pay, with just $628.60 per week.

9.

The occupations with the highest rates of work-related injuries and illness are machinery operators and drivers, followed by community and personal service workers. The industries with the highest rate of work-related illness or injury are manufacturing, followed by transport/postal/warehousing and agriculture/forestry/fishing.

10.

University of Wollongong students graduate. ( OUW Photography /Flickr CC BY-NC )

Education matters. Of Australians with a tertiary or higher education, 83 per cent have a paid job, compared with 59 per cent of those without an upper secondary education.

11.

Australian jobs are pretty secure compared with other nations. Australian workers have a 4.4 per cent chance of losing their job, which is lower than the OECD average of 5.3 per cent.