Minimum wage to rise 3.5 per cent: Fair Work Commission

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Minimum wage to rise 3.5 per cent: Fair Work Commission

The country’s lowest paid workers will receive a 3.5 per cent annual pay rise, the first official hike in four years.

The wage hike applies to the national minimum wage and all modern award minimum wages effective from 1 July this year and takes the national minimum wage from 24.10 per hour, or $915.90 per week to $24.94 and $947.85 respectively.

In committing to the increase, Fair Work Commissioner Justice Adam Harper said the increase recognised that those on the lowest award had not seen an official increase in three years, as the Commission had deferred rises in an inflationary environment.

Because of that deferral real wages for those on the lowest band had declined by 4.5 percentage points relative to inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index, the Commission said.

“The result has been that living standards for employees dependent on modern award wages have been squeezed and the low paid have experienced greater difficulty in meeting their everyday needs,” Justice Harper said.

“We are concerned that if this opportunity is not taken in this annual wage review, the loss in the real value of wages which has occurred will become permanently embedded in the modern award system and the national minimum wage and a reduction of living standards for the lowest paid in the community will thereby be entrenched.”

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