The more we cut the real incomes of our businesses’ customers, the less businesses will be able to sell to them, and the more the economy will be in anything but the “strong” condition Morrison keeps claiming it’s in. auspol ausvotes
At last, as the election campaign reaches the final stretch, we’ve found something worth debating. Anthony Albanese has found his spine and, while Scott Morrison says a decent rise for the masses is a terrible idea that would damage the economy.
Between them, the two contenders have revived and highlighted the oldest stereotype in Australia’s two-party politics: the Labor Party is - surprise, surprise – the party of ordinary workers, and will always champion their interests, whereas the Liberals are the party of business, and will always champion the interests of business.
A 5 per cent increase in the national minimum wage would be worth about $1 an hour or about $2000 a year. Note, however, that many of those in more skilled award classifications would be earning much more than that.The rises the industrial parties ask for in hearings before the commission are always “ambit claims”. The Australian Council of Trade UnionsOn the employer side, the Australian Industry Group says the most its member businesses could possibly afford is 2.5 per cent.
That’s particularly because the commission can be expected to allow for the 0.5 percentage-point increase in employers’ compulsory contributions to their workers’ superannuation accounts this July. The unions would love to have their cake and eat it, but I doubt they’ll be allowed to. I think it’s easy to exaggerate the economic cost of giving our lowest-paid workers a decent pay rise. Small business always cries poor and warns jobs will be lost. But there’s little empirical evidence that higher wages lead to job losses.