The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is calling on the federal government to increase the minimum wage for low paid workers by five percent to help them keep up with rising living costs.
It also said that a quarter of the Australian workforce, or 2.67 million workers, depends on the annual wage review for pay rises.
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said that the government should approve the five percent increase so that workers could stay ahead of increasing inflation and costs of living.
“If this government is serious about addressing the cost of living pressures, it starts with wage growth.”
At last year’s annual wage review, the ACTU asked for a 3.5 percent increase, while business groups recommended a 1.1 percent raise.
The FWC’s final decision was to lift the hourly rate for workers by 2.5 percent, equivalent to $20.33 per hour or $772.60 a week.
McManus said that wages growth was falling behind inflation forecasts, causing an average worker to take home less than $500 in income in the first six months of 2022.
“An increase of five percent that the ACTU will be arguing for is what is needed to get real wages growing and to avoid further pay cuts,” she said.
“The one-off payments of Morrison’s federal budget will do nothing to generate the long-term, sustainable wage growth that workers need or stop the nation’s workforce suffering another year of real wage cuts.”
The industries that significantly contributed to the wage growth in the December quarter were retail trade (1.2 percent), public administration and safety (0.7 percent), and health care and social assistance (0.6 percent).
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the largest and most representative business network in the country, did not reply to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.