The Fair Work Commission will give its annual wage review decision before the middle of the year. Will the nation's lowest-paid workers get a leg up?
Unions want a seven per cent rise – an increase of about $57 a week, for a full-time worker on the minimum wage."We are the working poor ... there's no work/life balance as I can't afford a life."
Employer groups argue businesses can only afford a 3.5 per cent rise for 2.6 million minimum-wage and award-wage workers. Inflation was 7.4 per cent for the year to December 2022, based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics' quarterly consumer price index. Mr McKellar said a wages blowout would heap pressure on small and family businesses at a time when they can least afford it.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke - a former union advocate for retail workers - says wages aren't keeping pace for some.But the central bank is alert to the risk of a price-wage spiral, given the limited spare capacity in the economy and the historically low rate of unemployment.Ms McManus says there was no wage-price spiral following last year's decision.
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