The one in every six workers who took up the Morrison Government's invitation to withdraw their super during the pandemic mostly took the maximum $20,000 or their whole account balance, tended to spend the windfall on gambling and consumer items, and cut their retirement income by $120,000 in today's dollars, according to a new academic study.
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.
Agreements filed with the FWC for approval in the first half of February delivered an average pay rise of 3.1% a year, according to "real-time" data released this morning.
Economy-wide labour costs have risen modestly in the December quarter as workers' share of income maintains its rebound from record lows, according to ABS national accounts data released today.
Private sector rates of pay increased to 3.6% annually in the December quarter, up from 3.4% in the previous three-month period, according to the ABS, but relatively low public sector rises have restricted the economy-wide movement to 3.3%.
Wages in private sector agreements approved in the September quarter remained stuck at 2.9% a year, defying labour shortages and inflationary pressure, according to DEWR data.
Enterprise agreements filed with the FWC in the fortnight to November 18 paid average annualised wage increases of 3.4%, substantially outpacing the 2.8% rises in DEWR's data for June quarter agreements but well below consumer price inflation of about 7%.
Union density has dropped significantly from 14.3% to 12.5% over the past two years and almost 10 percentage points a decade for the past 30 years, according to ABS data released today.
University researchers have told the Senate's work and care inquiry that long working hours are now the main driver of the gender pay gap and recommend capping the working week at 38 hours as a step towards gender equality.