The presentation also noted that a heading of the presentation presented this year by the then coalition government, entitled The Importance of Poorly Paid Work, “does not reflect the priorities of this government.”
Burke said the government had not limited its recommendation to those with the minimum wage.
“We are talking about low-paid workers. Who are these people? They are largely the heroes of the pandemic. They are the people on whom both sides of politics made lovely speeches after the pandemic, but only a part of politics, now the Labor government, was willing to fight, “he said.
“So we are talking about people with prizes that are also close to the minimum wage. You will find it for example [with] dependents, with cleaners, with a lot of people in the care economy. So low-wage workers are the benchmark. “
When asked to define which workers were underpaid, Burke said it was a problem that fair work dealt with all the time.
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The government referred to its commitment to closing the gender pay gap by saying in the presentation that paid workers “were more likely to be women, occasionally employed and under the age of 30.”
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said it was a “big change to have a government that accepts that there is a problem with wage growth in this country and is willing to do something about it.”
“The proportion of workers in the national income is at an all-time low, while productivity is strong and profits are at an all-time high. We urgently need wage growth for working people and this is a big first step, “he said.
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