Workers with the lowest wages in Australia will receive a large wage increase, and the measure is likely to have positive effects for millions of other workers.
Millions of Australians are expected to get a pay raise in a few weeks, and the increase is expected to be the largest in more than 10 years.
According to the ANZ investigation, the Fair Work Commission is expected to set a nominal increase from 4 to 4.5% of the national minimum wage and modern minimum wages.
This prediction comes when the Fair Labor Commission conducts its 2021-22 annual salary review to determine whether to increase the national minimum wage from $ 20.33.
A 4 percent increase would raise the minimum wage by 81 cents per hour to $ 21.14, while a 4.5 percent increase would mean a jump of 91 cents per hour to $ 21.24.
This would be the largest percentage increase in the minimum wage since 2010 as a result of the global financial crisis.
With inflation at 5.1%, such an increase would have a major impact on the more than 2.3 million Australians currently earning the minimum wage across the country.
But not only low-wage workers could be better off, as the Reserve Bank of Australia estimates that 40% of employees, some five thousand people, could be directly or indirectly affected by the wage review, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia. Daily mail.
This is because an increase in the national minimum wage could encourage millions of workers to ask for a pay rise or see them make new collective agreements with their employers.
However, a wage increase below the current inflation rate would still mean that many Australians will effectively face the real wage cut, and low-income workers in particular will feel the pressures of rising costs. of life.
However, an increase from 4 to 4.5% would be a much larger increase than that seen by low-income workers for a long time, with the average nominal increase between 2010 and 2019 of 3.1% .
The wage price index for the corresponding period was 2.6% year-on-year.
The current projected salary increase is still below 5.1% Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would support “absolutely” during the election campaign.
While the Prime Minister says he still supports an increase in the wages of Australia’s lowest workers, he has remarkably softened his language on the subject.
On Friday, he revealed that the federal government was making a presentation to the Fair Labor Commission as part of the annual salary review, although he declined to confirm an exact figure.
“The presentation will be consistent with what I said during the election campaign: that people who cover the minimum wage cannot afford to go back (and) can’t afford a real pay cut,” he told ABC .
“There will be no number in the presentation. What there will be, however, is the firm opinion we have, that people who cover the minimum wage simply cannot afford a real pay cut.”
New Liberal leader Peter Dutton wasted no time in jumping on Mr. Albanese, calling Labor’s planned presentation a “broken promise”.
“He has absolutely said he would support a 5.1 percent increase … and now he has broken that promise,” he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles supported Mr. Albanese, saying the Labor presentation would argue that people on the minimum wage “should not receive a real pay cut”.
“We are experiencing a cost of living crisis in Australia due to the failures of the former Liberal government,” he told reporters.
Other groups have already submitted their communications to the Fair Work Commission, with recommendations ranging from no increase to a whopping 6.5 percent.
The Australian Catholic Council for Labor Relations has advocated a 6.5% increase to try to lift children out of poverty, while the Australian Council of Trade Unions has recommended a 5.5% increase, just above inflation.
Major business groups such as the Australian Industry Group and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry have made higher-than-usual recommendations, with 2.5% and 3% respectively.