Increasing the Minimum Wage Is a Matter of Survival: Union Boss

Secretary of the ACTU Sally McManus during a doorstop in the media gallery at Parliament House on March 18, 2021 in Canberra, Australia. Sam Mooy/Getty Images

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has said a seven percent pay rise to all award wages across the board is a matter of survival for Australians.

ACTU Union Secretary Sally McManus said that a seven percent increase is essential for the minimum and award wage workers to keep them financially above water.

“It is simply about survival for the lowest-paid workers in our country,” McManus said in a media release.

“There are real people behind the statistics of Australia’s cost-of-living crisis–the workers we rely on to deliver vital services in early learning, aged care, disability care, fast food, cleaners, security, and retail.

“People are skipping meals, avoiding medical care, and dreading their next bill. Rents have skyrocketed along with the cost of essentials such as groceries, clothing, fuel, and childcare. Working people need a lifeline.”

According to ACTU data, workers have gone backward between 4.5 to six percent in terms of their real wages after inflation on essentials like groceries and energy rose up to eight percent.

The call from the unions comes as Australia’s monthly inflation rate decreased for the second consecutive month in February, providing a small but much-needed relief for households struggling with rising living costs.

According to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the monthly consumer price index rose by 6.8 percent in the 12 months to February, down 0.6 percent from January.

The February result was lower than market expectations of a 7.2 percent rise.

“This marks the second consecutive month of lower annual inflation, also known as ‘disinflation,’ from the peak of 8.4 percent in December 2022,” ABS head of prices statistics Michelle Marquardt said.

The most significant contributor to the annual rise in inflation was housing (up 9.9 percent), followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages (up eight percent), transport (up 5.6 percent) and recreation and culture (up 6.4 percent).

Inflation Risk From Wage Increase Dismissed

McManus also dismissed concerns that a significant wage hike would increase inflationary pressures on the economy, noting that there had been similar fears a wage-price spiral would occur last year with the award wage increase which did not eventuate.

“The evidence is in, and the last year’s increase, which was around five percent, had less than a third of one percent difference on the overall wage increase,” she said.

“There’s no evidence, and there no effect of current wages on inflation here or overseas actually.

“The impact of this wage increase on 2.6 million people has a little bump, you know, let alone a spiral, a tiny little bump on wages.”

Australian dollars in Sydney, on Jan. 15, 2016. AAP Image/Joel Carrett

Government Supportive of Rise in Minimum Wage

Meanwhile, the federal government has signalled it would focus more on wages in the near future to close any gaps in the award wages.

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Burke told ABC Radio on March 29 that the government was looking to introduce more industrial bills to the parliament this year that would continue the push to get wages moving upwards.

“The big thing is even though last year we did things that would get wages moving and lift the floor, there’s a series of different loopholes where people are still able to undercut different wage principles, whether it’s through wage theft—and the way, people can get away with that in different forms—or whether it’s areas like the gig economy that are effectively award-free, he said.

“So, there’s different areas where people are still falling through the cracks, and there’ll always be more to be done on this because every time you close a loophole, there’ll be a bad actor who goes out and tries to find a new one.”