Real non-farm unit labour costs have grown strongly in trend terms for the second quarter in a row, while gross value added per hour worked in the market sector has now increased for 26 of the past 27 quarters, according to ABS national accounts data released today.
United Voice is today staging a protest outside a Melbourne restaurant at the centre of a bartender's underpayments claim and says its investigation of the state's hospitality sector exposes the city as the "wage theft capital of Australia".
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency says "remarkable" growth in employers analysing their data for gender pay gaps means more than half now have formal strategies to address imbalances, but its annual scorecard reveals the overall $26,527 gender pay gap has decreased only marginally.
Private sector rates of pay excluding bonuses are growing at 1.9% a year in trend terms, up from the recent historic low of 1.8%, according to the ABS.
The region that at the height of the resources boom employed one in 200 Australian workers but accounted for a massive 20% of the nation's export income is critical to understanding Australian IR, Sydney University academic Bradon Ellem told a recent conference.
The FWC's minimum wage panel has decided against holding a preliminary hearing to consider new research on the budget required to sustain a healthy lifestyle, after the proposal only won support from Catholic employers.
Superannuation fund directors might have a duty to oppose "aggressive" employer strategies, such as unilateral agreement terminations, that suppress wages and reduce accumulation of retirement income, according to a new report by the Centre for Future Work.
Labour productivity grew at a higher average annual rate in the five years to 2015-16 than it did over the past 15 and 30 years, according to new Treasury analysis, but a leading labour market economist has criticised the "arbitrary and misleading" window chosen for the study.
The Department of Employment has told a Senate inquiry that almost two-thirds of large fast food, retail, hospitality and pharmacy deals pay less than the award for Sunday work.
While retreating from his much-hyped "call to arms" for workers to demand higher wages, Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe today told a Sydney audience that a continuation of the current period of stagnation in wage growth would have an "insidious" impact on the economy.
