Australia Raises Minimum Wages by 3.5% as Inflation Eases
A woman uses a machine to emboss a wallet in the window of a retail store selling leather goods in central Sydney, Australia, November 15, 2017.
SYDNEY, June 3 (Reuters) – Australia's independent wage-setting body on Tuesday raised the national minimum wage by 3.5% effective July 1, a real wage increase for about 2.6 million workers on the lowest pay as inflationary pressures ease in the economy.
The minimum rate will rise to A$24.94 ($16.19) per hour, resulting in an extra A$1,670 in a year for full-time employees, according to the Fair Work Commission's (FWC) annual review.
Headline consumer price inflation held at 2.4% in the first quarter, comfortably within the Reserve Bank of Australia's target band of 2% to 3% and having come down from the 7.8% peak in late 2022.
FWC President Adam Hatcher said the decision could help many workers to recoup the loss of their real income over the last few years due to high living costs.
'If this opportunity is not taken in this annual wage review, a loss in the real value of wages which has occurred will become permanently embedded … and a reduction of living standards for the lowest paid in the community will thereby be entrenched,' Hatcher said.
Last year, the FWC increased minimum wages by 3.75% but that was largely in line with inflation.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) described the wage increase as 'a great outcome' for employees on minimum wages, who it said suffered the most when inflation soared after the COVID-19 pandemic.
'Our lowest-paid workers are getting ahead again,' ACTU Secretary Sally McManus told reporters.
The Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates to a two-year low last month as cooling inflation at home offered scope to counter rising global trade risks, and left the door open to further easing in the months ahead.
At the same time, the labor market has remained surprisingly resilient, with the jobless rate hovering at 4.1% for over a year now. Employment gains have been driven by a surge in public sector jobs, with still tepid wage growth suggesting few risks of a damaging wage-price spiral.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asahi Shimbun
3 hours ago
- Asahi Shimbun
SDF boot camps a way to toughen up rookie hires in corporate Japan
New employees of Nissan Motor Kyushu Co. are drilled in marching at Air Self-Defense Force Tsuiki Air Base in Fukuoka Prefecture on April 10. (Hisatoshi Tanaka) CHIKUJO, Fukuoka Prefecture--The Self-Defense Forces are back in business with a boot camp program for companies wanting to toughen up new hires. 'Enlistment experience' at SDF camps and bases dropped sharply during the novel coronavirus pandemic. One company that is putting new employees through the mill hopes the regimented way of life in the SDF will pay dividends in terms of improved teamwork and leadership capabilities. Many new hires these days grew up in an age with fewer opportunities for face-to-face communication, company officials explained. Since fiscal 2015 until COVID-19 hit, the Ground SDF hosted between 1,200 and 1,700 enlistment experience programs across Japan each year, according to the Ground Staff Office. The annual count plunged to around 100 during the pandemic but has rebounded to 400 or so. Some Air and Maritime SDF bases also began holding programs again after the pandemic ended. However, the Air Staff Office and the Maritime Staff Office had no figures on the number of corporate employees signed up to courses around the country. ASDF Tsuiki Air Base, which straddles Chikujo and other municipalities in Fukuoka Prefecture, resumed hosting enlistment experience programs for trainees last year. Nissan Motor Kyushu Co., an auto subsidiary based in Kanda, Fukuoka Prefecture, enrolled its new hires in an SDF experience program at the air base as part of training for two years in succession. Ninety-six new hires, male and female, stayed at the base for two days during the latest training session this past spring. They were grouped into 10 squads of nine or 10 members each and started their daily routine with reveille resounding in their barracks at 6:15 a.m. sharp. They took meals squad by squad, with all members having to wait until the last one had finished eating. The trainees went on marches, lined up for roll call and saluted superiors. During a moderate run of 5 kilometers or so, all the members of a squad were required to adjust their pace together to cross the finish line simultaneously. 'I want the trainees to acquire habits expected of working adults, such as teamwork, discipline and the practice of greeting one another,' said Masahiro Todaka of Nissan Motor Kyushu's personnel division. Company officials said they decided to enroll their new employees in the SDF program after noticing their lack of cohesion and scanty sense of organization. Until recently, they had all been attending high school or university when online classes and conferences were deemed to be the norm. The SDF lists the enlistment experience programs under 'public relations activities.' Participants in the programs at Tsuiki Air Base also attend a lecture on the prevailing security situation around Japan and the role of the base. They get to inspect the defense equipment, including a fighter jet. 'The programs are helping us win the public's understanding of, and confidence in, this base, which is playing a part in national defense,' said a base official. AN EXPERT'S VIEW An academic who studies corporate culture was cautious in his assessment of the merits of the training programs. 'There are limits, in this age when individual creativity is in high demand, to what you can do by just acting as instructed,' said Hajime Ota, a professor emeritus of organization theory with Doshisha University in Kyoto. 'Organizations in Japan are very much a community type and prone to generate vertical relationships,' he said. 'That tendency could be exacerbated by the enlistment experience programs. Businesses should be aware of that risk in deciding whether to enroll their employees in the programs.'
Nikkei Asia
20 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
The scam that turned China's housing slump into a cash machine
Caixin Speculators exploit gap between sales prices, valuations, adding to banks' risks Residential buildings under construction in Huizhou, China, in October 2024. Once a pillar of the economy, China's property market has undergone a painful correction since late 2021. © Reuters WANG JING and HAN WEI, Caixin When Li Qing decided to sell her apartment in the southern Chinese city of Guilin, the real estate agent made an enticing offer: a quick sale and a guaranteed payment of 900,000 yuan ($125,000), hassle-free. All she had to do was agree to a few unusual conditions. The agent instructed Li to sign two separate sales contracts and to permit the buyer to name any individual as the "registered person" on the mortgage documents -- the nominal buyer and loan applicant.
Japan Today
a day ago
- Japan Today
VIPs visit expo
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, third from right, and George Glass, Ambassador of the U.S. to Japan pose with U.S. delegates outside the U.S. pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka, on Saturday. © Reuters
