Wages rose by 3.7 per cent over the year to March.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
“Labor promised an increase in real wages before the election,and they themselves in these budget papers had admitted in this term of government,in these three years,that ain’t going to happen.“
Fair Work Commission president Justice Adam Hatcher has sounded a warning that the 7 per cent increase for both the minimum wage and award rates sought by the ACTU might encourage the RBA to send interest rates higher.
In late June,the Fair Work Commission will hand down its decision on the minimum wage rise,which will directly affect about 180,000 workers but will have flow-on effects for up to 2.7 million people whose pay is set by an industry award. The government supports the minimum wage rising in line with inflation.
Justice Hatcher told unions at a hearing into the minimum wage on Wednesday that there appeared to be “some distance” between the government’s calculations that the minimum wage would be hiked in line with March inflation and the “slightly less direct message from the Reserve Bank about what sort of outcome from this review would be consistent with reducing inflation”.
Hatcher said he was considering if “a perceived high figure emanating from this review might encourage or cause the RBA to hike interest rates again and leave some households worse off”.
Earlier on Wednesday,Treasurer Jim Chalmers said decent wages were part of the solution to easing cost of living pressures,and he did not expect higher wages to add pressure to inflation.
“We want people to be able to earn a decent wage and provide for their loved ones,” he said.
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“We don’t have an inflation challenge in our economy because people are getting paid too much. We’ve got an inflation challenge in our economy,because Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine,and we’ve got busted supply chains here at home,” he said.
Employment Minister Tony Burke it was not a choice between fighting inflation and lifting wages,and poorer workers deserved better pay.
“In terms of the Annual Wage Review,we certainly think people on the minimum wage need to be in a situation where they’re not going backwards,” he said on ABC radio on Wednesday.
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