“I’ll be calling on family and friends to help for free because public holiday penalty rates are horrendous,” she said.

“On a public holiday weekend an 18-year-old here gets $33 per hour and an adult gets $47 an hour. Chefs earn more, and I will have at least 10 people working.

“Work will start at 4am just getting ready, and for many they will be 12 hour days.”

She said there wasn’t much money left after a public holiday once costs were taken out.

“They will be huge days for us. Last public holiday I wore a pedometer and walked 16 kilometres inside the cafe,” she said.

Over Easter Ms Crawford decided to open Deli on Kinghorne on Easter Saturday, Sunday and Monday and Coffelicious Saturday and Sunday.

“I can’t afford to close the cafes over the Easter break. A lot of stock would go off in those four days,” she said.

She said she supported the campaign to reduce penalty rates and said with the money her business would save she would either put it back into the business or into paying off her home.

“What’s wrong with that? That’s one of the reasons people go into business,” she said.

Scruples Hair and Beauty owner Sandra Bayer said she would be using the Easter break as a chance for her staff to have a Saturday off.

“Our staff would rather have the day off. They work Saturdays normally so it was a good chance for them to take a break,” she said.

“I think they would rather have the time off than the money.”

Hairdresser Hayley Showell agreed. 

“The time off is better than the money sometimes. I never get Saturdays off, but that’s when all my friends are off so I’m glad we won’t be working over Easter.”

She said if the regular weekend penalty rates were dropped she wouldn’t want to work Saturdays.

“If that’s what your job is you can’t do anything about it,” she said.