Almost 3 million workers will get a 4.75% pay rise in July. But wages can’t catch up with inflation |
Almost 2.8 million of Australia’s lowest-paid workers will get a 4.75% pay rise from July 1 this year, after the latest Fair Work Commission annual decision on award wages.
Around 100,000 of those workers – the very lowest paid workers on entry level and minimum pay – were singled out for an almost 6% increase, as rising inflation had left some of them unable to pay their bills.
But even after those pay rises, the commission’s expert panel acknowledged low-paid employees still won’t earn as much in real terms as they did five years ago, when inflation spiked towards the end of the COVID pandemic.
The latest data included in the panel’s decision shows inflation has risen faster than average wages since June 2021 – resulting in a real wage cut of 5.9% for average earners.
Who benefits from this decision
Announcing the wage rises, Justice Adam Hatcher said this was a “particularly challenging” decision, especially due to the “wild card of the Middle East conflict” and its ongoing price shocks on fuel and other goods.
Amid so much uncertainty, the expert panel said:
we have concluded, regrettably, that it would not be practicable or responsible in the current uncertain circumstances to award a real wage increase for employees reliant on modern award wage rates that would be sufficient to close the real wage gap entirely.
we have concluded, regrettably, that it would not be practicable or responsible in the current uncertain circumstances to award a real wage increase for employees reliant on modern award wage rates that would be sufficient to close the real wage gap........