The Albanese Government will urge the FWC's minimum wage panel to award an inflation-matching increase to the lowest-paid workers, but will stop short of pushing for an across-the-board increase for workers on higher award classifications.
The FWC's minimum wage review should order an increase that exceeds inflation, providing a real wage rise for the lowest paid, according to UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy.
Multi-year enterprise agreements, flaws in the "standard" Wage Price Index measure and public sector pay caps partially explain recent low wages growth, which would otherwise have been up to one percentage point higher last year, according to new university analysis.
New Zealand Labour Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has deferred public consultation on a new test to determine who is a contractor and who is an employee, as he seeks to concentrate on cost-of-living issues in lead-up to an expected October election.
Newly-appointed FWC expert panel members Marian Baird and Mark Cully will serve on this year's crucial minimum wage case bench, as inflation substantially outpaces pay growth and the Reserve Bank continues to warn against the prospect of a wage-price spiral.
Users can register now for the FWC's new digital tool to integrate minimum award rates of pay, allowances, overtime and penalty rates data into accounting software and payroll systems, ahead of its March 20 launch, while the tribunal is also about to release a range of other "digital transformation" initiatives.
Then Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese's call for a 5.1% pay rise for the lowest-paid ahead of the May federal election confirmed Labor as the party for working Australians, offered a closing contrast between the Morrison Government and a better future under the ALP, according to Labor's post-poll review.
The nexus between low unemployment and rising wages is broken, with the "hydraulic pressure" of a tight labour market undermined by systemic "leaks" and "loopholes", according to workplace relations minister Tony Burke.
A UK national living wage review has found that while the NLW's introduction has not caused job losses, the expected productivity gains have failed to materialise.
