Almost 2.8 million of Australia’s lowest-paid workers will get a 4.75 per cent 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 per cent 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 per cent for average earners.

CPI = Consumer Price Index (inflation). WPI = Wage Price Index, which tracks movements in rates of pay for all employees. AWOTE = average weekly ordinary-time earnings. Note: All data is in original terms. AWOTE is published half-yearly for May and November. Source: ABS, Consumer Price Index, Australia, April 2026; Wage Price Index, Australia, March 2026; Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, November 2025,

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........

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